dBooks desire

The situation had become far more intricate and embarrassing from every
point of view than it was when my predecessor, in 1894, summed up its
perplexities and condemned the participation in it of the United States.
The arrangement under which Samoa was administered had proved
impracticable and unacceptable to all the powers concerned. To withdraw
from the agreement and abandon the islands to Germany and Great Britain
would not be compatible with our interests in the archipelago. To
relinquish our rights in the harbor of Pago Pago, the best anchorage in
the Pacific, the occupancy of which had been leased to the United States
in 1878 by the first foreign treaty ever concluded by Samoa, was not to
be thought of either as regards the needs of our Navy or the interests
of our growing commerce with the East. We could not have considered any
proposition for the abrogation of the tripartite control which did not
confirm us in all our rights and safeguard all our national interests in
the islands.
Our views commended themselves to the other powers.


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