Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 337, 3 December 1891 — Concessions to Hawaii. [ARTICLE]

Concessions to Hawaii.

We quote the following from the New York Daily Tribune } of Novsmber Bth. The last paragraph |gives us positively the assurance lfrom the American People that fio annexation to the United States iieed be fearedr u The presence at Washington of Commissioners representing the t GoVernment Her Hawaiian Majesty engaged in an effort to induce our Governnifent to plaee Hawaii within theopeiation of our sugarbounty system draws attention to the £act that o\ar relatiojis \vith this interesting little kingdom are not as satisfaetory as they shouid be. The problems these Commissioners : have eome here to discuss are high-! ly important. It is scarcely an ex.-J involvel the life of Hawaii and strongly upon American prestige in the Pacific. They onght to admit of an easy solution, and if wise eou nsels prevail on both sides they will. It is not our fault that tbey were not properlv settled long ago. It is an open secret that Mr. Blaine negotiated a treaty with the late Minister (;arter, whieh not ©niy confirmed to Hawaii all the extyaordinary commercial advantages fihe had been enjoying under the Treaty of 1875, but gave her many new ones, the only condition being that the foreign relations of the kingdom should be under the supervision of the U nited States. It 18 known that popular sentiment in the islands overwhelmingly favored the ratification of this treaty, and that every. member of King Kalakaua ? s Cabinet indorsed it with a single exeeption. This was the Attorney General, a Canadian by birth. and an open enemy of the United £Hates. His inAuenee, with that of the British Legation at Honoluiu supported by semi-oflScial assuraace from Sir John Macdonald that Canada would lay acablefrom Vancouver to the Hawaiian capital, were sufficient to induce tbe King to reject the treaty. The result has been disastrous to Hawaii. Sir John did not lay the cable nor do any of tbe other muniiicient things he hinted at. The McKinley Tariff went into effeet with out aoeompanying provision protecting Hawaiian sugar interests, and the islands are in a eequential condition of financial dietress. * * * "The Hawaiiana ought to appreciate their positiou. They are dependent on the U nited States, pol* ticallv as we)l as commercially, r»ot haeauee the American people wish to exercise authority over them — for nothing is further from American policy — but because geography and the eolonial aspirations of Europe make them so. It is remote from our plans to-dav to annex Hawaii or to oontrol her internal adminiBtratioii as it was when under our nrotection the Kingdom was established. Xhis situation wil) eoniinue mdefinitely, an ' will carr_v over to Hawaii all the LJessings of enterprise and in enoe we ourselves enioy if the Hawaiiatis arp as mindtul of our interestB as wo have boen and wiU be of theirs.