" The same day (24th) de Coetlogon complained that
Fletcher, manager for Messrs. MacArthur, had been summoned by Fritze. In
answer, Knappe had "the honour to inform your Excellency that since the
declaration of the state of war, British subjects are liable to martial
law, and Mr. Fletcher will be arrested if he does not appear." Here,
then, was the gauntlet thrown down, and de Coetlogon was burning to
accept it. Fletcher's offence was this. Upon the 22nd a steamer had
come in from Wellington, specially chartered to bring German despatches
to Apia. The rumour came along with her from New Zealand that in these
despatches Knappe would find himself rebuked, and Fletcher was accused of
having "interested himself in the spreading of this rumour." His arrest
was actually ordered, when Hand succeeded in persuading him to surrender.
At the German court, the case was dismissed "_wegen Nichtigkeit_"; and
the acute stage of these distempers may be said to have ended. Blessed
are the peacemakers. Hand had perhaps averted a collision. What is more
certain, he had offered to the world a perfectly original reading of the
part of British seaman.
Hand may have averted a collision, I say; but I am tempted to believe
otherwise.
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