AMERICANS IN SAMOAN AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5634, 6 December 1879, Page 6

AMERICANS IN SAMOAN AFFAIRS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —In your paper of September 13th a writer from Apia sees tit to publish, among other things, an ac:ount of his entertainment at the private table of the hospitable Governor of Anna, and to give a rainut* descriotion of the articles of food provide-!.

description ui i/?.c .«i liuics ui tuou. provider, with comment on the crockery on which it \Vas served, supplemented by a criticism of the Governor'a wife and the guests who sat at bis taWe. If this cross violation of good breeding and *jood ti&tc was the; only fault of the writer, I should pas 3 i r . by, knowing that his previous associations bad been such aa to preclude the hops oE more gentlemanly conduct j but when, in another part of his letter, he goes out of his way to make a false accusation against the sailors of the U.S. s.B. Lackawanna aud all the American ships of war that came here, it is time that he, as well as the public, should bear a little wholesome truth. It could scarcely be expected that a writer and compositor of a paper which is weekly engaged in manufacturing a false public opiuion at home would be ovor-scrupulous with the reports ho sends abroad. Nor is it surprising that one whose daily study it is to fawn upon the three foreign consuls or cringe under the fear of their displeasure, should marvel at the I hardihood of General Bartlett, or any man who, as he says, is "working under their opposition," and that he should be unable to understand the feelings and motives of such a man. When speaking of General Bartlett, it is not necessary for the writer, in order to show a petty spite, to display his ignorance as he does by putting au interrogation after the word " CJeneral." A man who by his own conduct rose from the position of a private soldier to the rank of Major-Geneal in the United States army, who fought with the army of the Potomac in every battle 111 which it was engaged from Hull Kun to Appommatiox Courthouse, who personally accepted the surrender of General Lee'rf infantry arms, and who bears five wounds received in battle, does not need to get his credentials as an officer or a man from a correspondent in Apia. No higher compliment could be paid to a man's independence and integrity than that implied by the correspondent's remark, that in addition to the opposition of the consuls, the public opinion (of Apia) was strongly against the General. > Public opinion here is German opinion. The public are the tools or sycophants of the Germans, and make up their miud* at German dictation and according to the German standard. The correspondent is greatly concerned that General Bartlett seems cheerful and agreeable, and, while he confesses himself unable to. fathom the General's private thoughts and feeling —as if any sensible man would dhclose his feelings to every chance scribbler who is lucky enough to get a meal at the house where he stays—would "wear his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at." Yet, without any foundation, aud with a reckless disregard of truth, he presumes to invent political views for him, and claims them to be in accordance with those of the " foreigners who have lived here some time, and are the true i judges of the native characters." Those foreigners ought to be tho bast judges of the native character, for they have themselves acquired the worst features of it. The future, and from present appearances a uot very distant fulure, will afford the beat tuso ; of the soundness of the General's judgment, and bring the reward of his constancy aud i self-denial. In the event of his suueess, those will be the first to fawn upon him who are now loudest in decrying him. The writer also indulges in some spiteful tlmgs i at the " Lackawanna." How he discovered the wonderful secret that she was short of ammunition and would have to retire from action, is a mystery. I was in iut mate daily association with all of htr olHoers for two months, and would have been likely to hear of it, if any oue did but I never heard % whisper of the scantiness of ammunition, though the ofiicers who knew of such a fact would not be likely to tell of it to anyone, and besides ships of war of any nation do not usually go to distant stations in any such defenceless condition. The history of the American navy shows that when action has been demauded ships have not lacked ammunition nor crews the ability to use it. 1 thiuk that the Lackawanna would have proved no exception. That is only one of the many canards with which, from the force of loug-continued habit this community required to be daily fed. But all ide.? nf any ship of war coining into action is absurd, and only serves to show the sensational proclivities of its orignator. The natives have no design to harm the whites, and respect constituted authority now that ail the men-of-war arc away, as much as they ever did. The attack upon the character and conduct of the crew of the Lockawanna is unnecessary and unjust, and both false and malicious is the remark that it will be a great relief to the foreigu residents when the ship is gone. This is a small place of perhaps one hundred white inhabitants, nearly all of whom are engaged in some kind of trade. It is preposterous to say that a ship of war, with a complement of meugreaterthan the whole population of the town is not a pecuniary benelit to tho place ; and being so, that the people are not glad to have her come,aud sorry when she goes. It is a matter of general remark that Americans from a man-of-war spend more money in a place than people of any other nation Therefore, when the writer says that the foreign residents were glad to sec the Lackawanna go, to the detriment of their own business, he atated what from reaeon and common sense he knew to be absolutely false, and what I can also declare false from inquiry and observation. The foreign residents were cot glad to see the Lackawanna go. As to the character of thQ crew, I had as good opportunities of observation as the < writer, and have, perhaps, seen more sailors j than he in other parts of the world, and 1 J can say that these were as well behaved as the average sailors of any nation in any port. The writer says he never experiences any anno3 r ance from the German ships of war, but perhaps it he had been the Englishman who was set upon in the street by about twenty sailors from one of those ships, and only escaped with his life by the intervention of the British Consul, he might be of a different opinion. The American sailors wtre not guilty of such an outrage as that; but then that was committed by Germans, and to the Apian mind the Germans can do no wrong. When the writers abuse of a single ship is enlarged so as to include "every American ship of war that has cvor been to this port," and when ho he represents their crews as worse than those of any other nation, it simply shows his iguorance of the well known principle that humau nature is about the same wherever you find it, and that his Anglo-German partUausliip is stronger than his regard for truth. The people in this place are hardly in a position to be very critical in regard to others. A community made up of adventurers and renegades from every country, whose highest aim, in the intervals between their attempts to overreach one another, is to driuk kuva and slander women, is hardly a proper judge of good conduct in strangers. A man in ! Apia who will not lie and cheat whenever occasion serves must feel as lonely as Lot ia Sodom. Another circumstance which shows the Lackawanna's crew, and which make* " foul-mouthed abuse" of them from Ap a particularly ungracious, is the fact that those sailors, " mis-called men," furnished a minstrel entertainment, both on the ship and on shore, to the people of Apia, which could be equalled by few crews of any nation. Tho first performance was free to all, aud the second, given for the beudit of the English Mission School, returned the cum of one hundred and fifteen dollars, or £23. I would commend the writer iu question to the consideration of subjects which, both in mind and disposition, he is better titted to treat of ; thereby, while still being able to ventilate his malignity, he will save himself from another such display of bad taste and questionable veracity.—l am, &c., An American.