THE UNITED STATES AND SAMOA 219 



III 



A glance at the somewhat complex social conditions which 

 existed at Apia in 1884-89, the years of greatest disturbance, 

 is necessary to an understanding of the series of events which, 

 beginning about that time, culminated in the tripartite treaty 

 of Berlin. 



The municipality of Apia was governed wholly by the 

 consular representatives of England, Germany, and the 

 United States ; and the private property within this neutral 

 area generally belonged to citizens of one or the other of 

 these three powers residing and doing business in the islands. 

 To the Samoans, Apia was, to all intents and purposes, a for 1 " 

 eign city, over which they exercised no control whatever. 

 Here was concentrated the wealth of the islands, and within 

 the neutral zone at Mulinuu resided King Malietoa Lau- 

 pepa and his Vice-King Tamasese, the nominal heads of a 

 peculiarly weak and unstable government. In the environs 

 of Apia in every direction the painted sign-posts of foreign 

 property holdings stealthily advanced, sometimes moving on 

 by night into the wilderness that surrounds the neutral strip 

 of the municipality. 



In Apia proper the foreign population was composed of 

 three distinct elements, that quarrelled among themselves or 

 united in friendship as their own separate and rival interests 

 dictated. Of these three elements the German was the most 

 aggressive and commanding. Their commercial interests in 

 Samoa, embodied in the Godeffroy firm (reorganized into 

 the " Deutsche Handels- und Plantagen-Gesellschaft f iir Sud- 

 see-Inseln zu Hamburg"), greatly exceeded those of the 

 American and English residents combined. A vast amount 

 of capital had been expended in improving their large planta- 

 tions scattered throughout the islands, and their excellent 

 trade had been established by thirty years of constant vigi- 

 lance and toil. To the Germans in Apia, the prestige of their 

 country and the success of their great " firm " had almost 

 become synonymous terms. Nothing should be permitted to 



