256 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



to the police courts of the municipality of Apia, duly pro- 

 vided for, the consuls of the three nations represented in 

 Samoa continued to maintain judicial functions according to 

 the various laws of extraterritoriality. 



The business of the islands is conducted at Apia, at which 

 port the vessels that keep alive the trade of the nation arrive 

 and depart, and it is there that the bulk of the revenues is col- 

 lected. Accordingly a municipal council with a chairman or 

 president is established. The president draws 15000 a year. 

 He is the chief executive of the district, and advises the king 

 "in accordance with the provisions of the general act, and not 

 to the prejudice of the rights of either of the three treaty 

 powers." This council has upon its table the affairs of the 

 municipal district of Apia, which in fact must virtually be 

 the affairs of Samoa, as it collects the customs revenue as well 

 as the taxes at the only point of export and import in the 

 nation, and where the great majority of the tax-payers reside. 

 The council appoints its own subordinate officers for the dis- 

 trict. All its legislative acts, however, are inoperative and 

 of no effect until approved by the consuls of the three 

 treaty powers in Samoa. 



A land commission is established for the examination of all 

 claims and titles to real property, their holdings being subject 

 to review by the Supreme Court. 



The salaries of all these officials, none of whom, excepting 

 the king, were likely to be native islanders, are to be paid the 

 first year by the contracting powers, and thereafter from the 

 native treasury. 



Besides this corps of officials and their lists of rules and 

 regulations, the act provides a system of revenue containing 

 a schedule of export and import duties, and embracing a code 

 of laws covering internal taxation. 



On the face of the treaty it plainly appears that the gov- 

 ernment provided for Samoa by the three powers was a joint 

 protectorate pure and simple, that the words "autonomous 

 government" contained in the paper were devoid of all mean- 

 ing, while the act itself, in recognizing the " independence of 

 the Samoan Government, and the free right of the natives to 



