MR W. L. REES INTERVIEWED.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11128, 21 January 1899, Page 3

MR W. L. REES INTERVIEWED.

[PER UNITED rBESS ASSOCIATION.] Gisbokne, Friday. Mr W. L. Bees, who acted as legal adviser to the late King Malietoa in 1886, when the Germans attempted the annexation of Samoa, subsequently visited Washington on Malietoa's behalf, when the latter had been carried away captive. In the course of an interesting interview with fa reporter of the Poverty Bay Herald he states that he saw Mr Grover Cleveland and Mr Bayard, and that the latter personally assured him (Mr Bees) that he might tell Malietoa that the Americans would never permit Germany to annex Samoa. He said England might take Samoa at a day's notice, but America would not permit a Continental power to come into the Southern Pacific and take a position that would interfere with their trade lines upon the ocean. He said the American plenipotentiary at the Berlin Conference had been instructed to specifically state that the annexation of Samoa by Germany would be held as equivalent to a declaration of war.