This policy
was now the more necessary; for if the whole existence of the
municipality were a check on the freedom of the new government, it was
plainly less so when the power to enforce and punish lay in German hands.
For some while back the Malietoa flag had been flown on the municipal
building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; my information obliges me to
suppose he is in error. Sewall, with post-mortem loyalty to the past,
insisted that this flag should be continued. And Becker immediately made
his point. He declared, justly enough, that the proposal was hostile,
and argued that it was impossible he should attend a meeting under a flag
with which his sovereign was at war. Upon one occasion of urgency, he
was invited to meet the two other consuls at the British consulate; even
this he refused; and for four months the municipality slumbered, Martin
still in office. In the month of October, in consequence, the British
and American ratepayers announced they would refuse to pay. Becker
doubtless rubbed his hands. On Saturday, the 10th, the chief Tamaseu, a
Malietoa man of substance and good character, was arrested on a charge of
theft believed to be vexatious, and cast by Martin into the municipal
prison.
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