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228 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



he addressed simply as " High Chief." Mistaking the object 

 of the admiral's mission, Malietoa addressed to him a letter 

 reviewing at great length the story of his sorrows. " Your 

 Excellency," he concluded, "let the righteous dealing and 

 the kind regard of the Government of Germany be manifest 

 toward our islands, so feeble and so few." But the admiral's 

 ear belonged to Dr. Steubel and not to Malietoa, and it was 

 to Tamasese that he fired a royal salute. 



The luckless Malietoa, now wholly discouraged and believ- 

 ing that the Germans seriously meant to crown his rival,, 

 directed another appeal to the American Consul for* protec- 

 tion ; and in reply to this the sympathetic Mr. Greenebaume 

 unfurled the American colors over Apia, and proclaimed an 

 American protectorate (May 14, 1886). An American and 

 an English man-of-war arrived; the German flag was fly- 

 ing at Mulinuu over a proclamation setting forth that the 

 municipality of Apia was under German control ; the Ameri- 

 can flag fluttered over Apia above a document which warned 

 all passers-by that Samoa was an American possession. 

 Tamasese was in open revolt, with Geqnan encouragement 

 behind him. Malietoa was gathering about him his clans on 

 the other side of Apia, and the Americans and English were 

 giving him consolation and selling him arms. The outlook 

 was threatening. 



The summary action of Consul Greenebaume in pro- 

 claiming a protectorate over Samoa disturbed the State 

 Department at home. The situation seemed to call for the 

 fulfilment by the United States of its obligation under the 

 treaty of 1878, to use its good offices in behalf of the Samoan 

 Government, although that obligation could scarcely be 

 carried to the extent of lending its flag to the threatened 

 ruler. Instructions were accordingly sent by the United 

 States to its representatives at London and Berlin, to annouce 

 that the protectorate over Samoa set up by Consul Greene- 

 baume was unauthorized. Recognizing, however, the serious- 

 ness of the situation in Apia, and desiring to remove all 



