SAMOA. 



SANTO DOMINGO. 



771 



" ART. II." Germany renounces in favor of 

 Great Britain all her rights over Tonga Islands, 

 including Vavau, and over the Savage island, 

 including the right of establishing a naval station 

 and coaling station, and the right of extraterri- 

 toriality in the said islands. Germany similarly 

 renounces, in favor of the United States of Amer- 

 ica, all her rights over the island of Tutuila and 

 over the other islands of the Samoan group east 

 of longitude 171 east of Greenwich. She recog- 

 nizes as falling to Great Britain those of the 

 Solomon Islands, at present belonging to Ger- 

 many, which are situated to the east and south- 

 east of the island of Bougainville, which latter 

 shall continue to belong to Germany, together 

 with the island of Buka, which forms part of it. 

 The western portion of the neutral zone in West 

 Africa, as defined in Article V of the present 

 convention, shall also fall to the share of Great 

 Britain. 



" ART. III. The consuls of the two powers at 

 Apia and in the Tonga Islands shall be provi- 

 sionally recalled. The two governments will come 

 to an agreement with regard to the arrangements 

 to be made during the interval in the interest of 

 their navigation and of their commerce in Samoa 

 and Tonga. 



" ART. IV. The arrangement at present exist- 

 ing between Germany and Great Britain and con- 

 cerning the right of Germany to freely engage 

 laborers in the Solomon Islands belonging to 

 Great Britain shall be equally extended to those 

 of the Solomon Islands mentioned in Article II, 

 which fall to the share of Great Britain. 



" ART. V. In the neutral zone the frontier be- 

 tween the German and English territories shall 

 be formed by the river Daka as far as the point 

 of its intersection with the ninth degree of north 

 latitude, thence the frontier shall continue to 

 the north, leaving Morozugu to Great Britain, 

 and shall be fixed on the spot by a mixed com- 

 mission of the two powers in such manner that 

 Gambaga and all the territories of Mamprusi shall 

 fall to Great Britain, and that Yendi and all the 

 territories of Chakosi shall fall to Germany. 



"ART. VI. Germany is prepared to take into 

 consideration, as much and as far as possible, the 

 wishes which the Government of Great Britain 

 may express with regard to the development of 

 the reciprocal tariffs in the territories of Togo 

 and of the Gold Coast. 



" ART. VII. Germany renounces her rights of 

 extraterritoriality in Zanzibar, but it is at the 

 same time understood that this renunciation shall 

 not effectively come into force till such time as 

 the rights of extraterritoriality enjoyed there by 

 other nations shall be abolished. 



"ART. VIII. The present convention shall be 

 ratified as soon as possible, and shall come into 

 force immediately after the exchange of ratifica- 

 tions." 



An explanatory declaration was exchanged at 

 the same time: 



" It is clearly understood that by Article II of 

 the convention signed to-day Germany consents 

 that the whole group of the Howe Islands, which 

 forms part of the Solomon Islands, shall fall to 

 Great Britain. 



" It is also understood that the stipulations of 

 the declaration between the two governments 

 signed at Berlin on the 10th April, 1886, respecting 

 freedom of commerce in the western Pacific apply 

 to the islands mentioned in the aforesaid con- 

 vention. 



" It is similarly understood that the arrange- 

 ment at present in force as to the engagement of 

 laborers by Germans in the Solomon Islands per- 



mits Germans to engage those laborers on the 

 same conditions as those which are or which shall 

 be imposed on British subjects nonresident in 

 those islands." 



Tutuila, the island that falls to the United 

 States, has an area of only 55 square miles, but 

 contains the only safe harbors in Samoa, of which 

 Pago Pago, almost bisecting the island, has been 

 occupied as an American coaling station. With 

 the little adjacent islands, Tutuila has about 4,000 

 inhabitants, mainly engaged in fishing. The 

 island is mountainous in the interior, and thickly 

 wooded, and is considered the most fertile of the 

 Samoan group. Sugar, coffee, cotton, and the 

 cocoanut palm are the most promising products. 



SANTO DOMINGO, a republic in the West 

 Indies, a Spanish colony before independence was 

 achieved in 1844, occupying the eastern part of 

 the island of Hayti. The Congress is a single 

 chamber of 24 members, elected by direct quali- 

 fied suffrage for two years, 2 members for each 

 of the 6 provinces, 2 for each of the 6 maritime 

 districts. The President is elected for four years 

 by an electoral college. Gen. Ulisses Heureaux 

 was elected President for the term ending Feb. 

 27, 1900, having already served three terms in 

 succession. The Vice-President is Gen. Wenceslao 

 Figuereo. The Cabinet at the beginning of 1899 

 was composed as follows: Secretary of the In- 

 terior and Police, Gen. J. Pichardo; Secretary 

 of Foreign Affairs, Enrique Henriquez; Secretary 

 of Justice and Public Instruction, S. E. Valverde ; 

 Secretary of Finance and Commerce, J. Alvarez; 

 Secretary of Fomento and Public Works, Gen. 

 T. Cordero; Secretary of War and Marine, Gen. 

 T. D. Morales. 



Area and Population. The area of Santo 

 Domingo is 18,045 square miles. The population 

 is estimated at 610,000. Santo Domingo, the 

 capital city, has 14,150 inhabitants. At the head 

 of each province and maritime district is a gov- 

 ernor. The language of the country is Spanish. 

 Almost the entire population is of negro or mixed 

 blood. The state religion is Roman Catholicism, 

 but all creeds are tolerated. 



Finances. The revenue, which is raised mostly 

 by duties on both imports and exports, amounted 

 in 1897 to $1,601,294 in gold, against $1,545,450 

 in 1896, $1,382,500 in 1895, $1,378,450 in 1894, 

 $1,115,500 in 1893, and $652,500 in 1892. Gen. 

 Heureaux has kept up an army of 2,500 men, well 

 drilled and equipped, which has swallowed up half 

 the revenue. He also maintained 3 well-armed 

 gunboats. 



The foreign debt was consolidated in 1897 into 

 $13,325,000 of 2|-per-cent. and $7,500,000 of 4-per- 

 cent, bonds guaranteed by the customs duties and 

 other assigned revenues, the collection of which 

 was intrusted to the Santo Domingo Improvement 

 Company of New York, which effected the con- 

 version of the debt and undertook to complete 

 unfinished railroads and other improvements. 

 There are also unfunded liabilities bringing up 

 the total indebtedness to nearly $30,000,000. Be- 

 fore Gen. Heureaux seized the presidency in 1882 

 the principal debt was the Hartmont loan nego- 

 tiated with the Rothschilds in 1868, and amount- 

 ing to $3,675,000 nominally, although only $35,- 

 000 reached the treasury. President Heureaux 

 raised a loan of $3,850,000 in Hamburg, Amster- 

 dam, and Brussels in 1888 and one of $4,500,000 

 in 1890 in Amsterdam for railroad construction. 

 All these loans were assumed by the American 

 syndicate that undertook to complete the rail- 

 roads, and this syndicate received $1,250,000 of 

 bonds for the gunboats, which cost only $300,000, 

 then $1,500,000 of bonds when the French in- 



