19023 A Delicate Situation 



identified them with the United States, through their 

 two chieftains, Mauga and Paa Vei, they caused to 

 be drawn up an elaborate document formally turning 

 over the sovereignty of their island to the new author- 

 ities. Now, according to South Seas etiquette, to 

 receive a present without acknowledgment is a grave 

 insult, and yet Tutuila saw the United States enter Official 

 and occupy the island, building docks, storehouses, *J* { 



. ,^ J . , f . . ' etiquette 



and residences, without a word or recognition. On tempered 

 our arrival at Pago I found the natives much wrought hi**** 



, i T i r r i an "- con ~ 



up over the matter, and 1 uamanua, cinei of the tiny 

 outlying island, wholly ignored by his powerful pro- 

 tector, was frankly rebellious. At the commandant's 

 request, therefore, I went before the little parliament 

 and explained that the United States did not wish to 

 override any of their rights. As they would remem- 

 ber, it had paid previous owners for whatever land 

 it occupied as well as for all service required. More- 

 over, through the good governor, Captain Sebree, 

 it had taken great pains to safeguard the interests 

 of the people in their relations to traders in copra, the 

 principal export of that region. 1 I also called atten- 

 tion to the fact that for their benefit the President 

 had sent Kellogg and me to study the fisheries of the 

 islands to find out all the kinds, and what they were 

 good for. Indeed, I had prepared for their use a 

 series of paintings of poisonous fishes, and Kellogg 

 had taught them how to get rid of the mosquito and 

 thus abate their two most dreaded scourges. 



I further recalled the sad fact that not long after 



Sebree I learned of one characteristic line of graft disclosed by him. 

 Suspecting that the natives were being cheated, he weighed himself on two sets 

 of scales belonging to a trader. The one for measuring copra registered his 

 weight at 120 pounds; on the other, employed for commodities sold to the 

 people, he tipped the beam at about 200! 



I 125 -3 



