At the same time I
acknowledge the receipt of your high favour of the 14th October in reply
to my communication of the same date, which contained the information of
the suspension of the arrangements for the municipal government." There
the correspondence ceased. And on the 18th January came the last step of
this irritating intrigue when Tamasese appointed a judge--and the judge
proved to be Martin.
Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker the
chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed into the
hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; and the
German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But there is a law
of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at school, and it
seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, but not the
combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the chequered career of
the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been seized by open force,
there might have been complaint, it would not have aroused the same
lasting grudge.
This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble enough
in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported by the guns
of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien's work, highly needful
for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans.
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