Bayard, the Washington conference on Samoan
affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that "the ministers of Germany and
Great Britain might submit the protocols to their respective
Governments." "You propose that the conference is to adjourn and not to
be broken up?" asked Sir Lionel West. "To adjourn for the reasons
stated," replied Bayard. This was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine days
later, by Wednesday the 24th of August, Germany had practically seized
Samoa. For this flagrant breach of faith one excuse is openly alleged;
another whispered. It is openly alleged that Bayard had shown himself
impracticable; it is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy was an
expression of American intrigue, and that the Germans only did as they
were done by. The sufficiency of these excuses may be left to the
discretion of the reader. But, however excused, the breach of faith was
public and express; it must have been deliberately predetermined and it
was resented in the States as a deliberate insult.
By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war-ships in
Apia bay: the _Bismarck_, of 3000 tons displacement; the _Carola_, the
_Sophie_, and the _Olga_, all considerable ships; and the beautiful
_Adler_, which lies there to this day, kanted on her beam, dismantled,
scarlet with rust, the day showing through her ribs.
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