| Show 3IATAAFA THE RIGHTFUL KING Chief Justices Decision Certain to Provoke War Chicago Jan 19F W Pickard a Chicago newspaper man who has recently re-cently returned from Samoa has this to say of the situation Everybody at Apia knew that a bloody conflict j would result If the court decided in favor fa-vor of young Tsnu and even the i friends of the latter admitted freely that he would have no show if there 5 was a fight Mataafa had had a very large majority of the natives with him from the first fully SO per cent I should say and furthermore he is by far the best man for king He is intelligent dignified courteous and has the years which natives respect Aside from the question of expedient there is no doubt in my mind that Ma taafa was rightfully elected king I reached this conclusion after two months careful inquiry into the strtas of the case The trial itself had been a farce up to the time J left two days before its close Very few Samoans can be relied re-lied on to tell the truth even under oath if the truth would harm their cause and the chief justice knows this as well as anyone else The German consul lens been at loggerheads with the American and British consuls throughout the whole affair and has persistently refused to act with them He openly espoused the Cause of Mataafa and he certainly certain-ly went further than consuls usually do The British and American consuls maintained a neutral attitude throughout through-out the trial only giving assurance that they would protect the lives and property of the white residents The dispatches say that Mataafas army looted and burned Apia That evidently does not mean the municipality munici-pality is a whole but the native village vil-lage of Apia which is only one of several sev-eral within the municipality If the powers undertake to force the chief Justices decision they will have a tough job The warships now there cannot land over 400 men and Ma taafas forces number many thousands The natives are fairly well armed though they have not a great deal of ammunition They could withdraw a little way from the coast and keep up the fight for months In country where the white soldiers would find food very scarce and the bush too dense for effective ef-fective movements It would not be so easy to subdue and capture Mataafa as It was in 1S93 for at that time he had sent nearly all of his followers to their homes not desiring war News Officially Confirmed Washington Jan 19It was stated at the department of state today that dispatches had been received from United States Consul Osborn at Apia but as to their nature the officials had nothing to say beyond that they wont to confirm the news dispatches printed this morning Admiral Kauts the commander of the Pacific gtatlon is now on board his flagship the Philadelphia Phila-delphia and it was stated at the navy department that he would accompany the ship to Samoa |
