Il6 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [414 



Article i of the agreement stipulated that : 



" Sa Majeste le Roi de Suede et de Norvege retrocede a 

 la France Tile de Saint-Barthelemy. . . . Cette retrocession 

 est faite sous la reserve expresse du consentement de la 

 population de Saint-Barthelemy et, en outre, aux conditions 

 enumerees dans un protocol special."** 



By a vote of 350 against a few absentees the population 

 declared for retrocession to France.^^ Whereupon the peo- 

 ple of the island were declared to be subjects of France in a 

 Protocol of October 30, "ayant ete consulte conformement 

 a I'article I" de la convention en faveur d'une reunion de 

 cette lie aux possessions frangaises."** 



In his article on the annexation of the Island of St. Bar- 

 tholomew to France, E. Plauchut rejoices that the retroces- 

 sion to its former owners was not achieved by war and 

 bloody reprisals, but he regrets that the transaction had been 

 accomplished in a manner similar to the inclusion in the 

 budget of the purchase of a "tableau" or "some war ma- 

 terial " without having been accorded even a short but 

 dignified discussion in the Senate or the House of Depu- 

 ties.*" Of the principle of popular consent to be applied as 

 it was he makes light, when he writes : 



To vote for their municipal councilors, their deputies or senators, 

 certainly means a great deal in France, but under the equator at 

 Guadeloupe, Martinique, Derisade and soon in St. Bartholomew, is 

 less important. In those regions only so-called colored people arc 

 occupied with politics ; the pure white and the negroes abstain, the 

 former because they are to-day in the minority, the latter because 

 they know no other politics than to live without work."" 



There have been various instances of a resort to the 

 plebiscite in the case of territorial changes in the history of 

 the United States, and one in the international settlement 

 of some of the South American countries. 



8^ Freudenthal, pp. 38-39. 



*^ Plauchut, p. 430. The absentees were mainly Lutherans of 

 Swedish nationality. "Four hundred English Methodists chose for 

 France" (ibid.). See also Wambaugh, pp. 155-156. 



*^ Freudenthal, p. 39. 



*" Plauchut, p. 417. 



"" Ibid., p. 432. The chiefs of Tahiti (Society Islands") were con- 

 sulted regarding the treaty of cession of the island to France in 

 1880 (Wambaugh, p. 23). 



