232 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



home governments. Thus the matter rested, it being believed 

 in Washington that the question would be readily adjusted 

 within a few months, when the commissioners were again to 

 meet. 



VI 



News of the adjournment of the conference without a defi- 

 nite conclusion no sooner reached Apia than the old reign of 

 dissension began anew, and so vastly complicated became 

 the situation in those turbulent little islands, that had 

 not the greater forces of nature intervened at a most criti- 

 cal moment, it is possible a war between Germany and the 

 United States might have resulted. For their hasty acts of 

 the previous year, Consuls Steubel and Greenebaume had 

 been dismissed, and were replaced by Herr Becker and Mr. 

 Harold M. Sewall respectively. The former entered upon 

 his duties as German Consul with a determination to follow 

 to its rational conclusion the policy Steubel had inaugurated; 

 his aim was to complete the task that his predecessor had 

 been forced to abandon. This he set about doing with a 

 lofty disregard for the Washington agreement just entered 

 into by the representatives of the three powers. Malietoa 

 had already been marked as a victim by Steubel, on account 

 of his supposed unfriendly attitude toward the Germans, 

 but circumstances had prevented the former consul from 

 perfecting his plans ; he was still recognized as the lawful 

 sovereign by England and the United States, and Tamasese 

 had perforce been abandoned by Steubel at a moment when 

 his scheming had almost succeeded in making him king. 



Mr. Becker immediately cast about him to discover a good 

 excuse for stripping the unfortunate Malietoa of the last 

 vestige of his power. Some glaring misdeed, still better an 

 atrocity, was needed. It was found, though a slender one. 

 About six months before this time, in a bar-room brawl, some 

 German sailors had fallen into an altercation with a few 

 natives, and a rough-and-tumble fracas ensued, out of which 

 all parties emerged with bruises. The natives who had 

 participated in this "riot" were found guilty of assault 



