§ ADMIRAL ERSKINEasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If Her Majesty's Government are in possession of any information with respect to the alleged assumption by the United States of the protectorate of the 638 Samoan or Navigators Islands, or if the United States have occupied any part or portion of those islands with native consent?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDInformation has reached the Foreign Office that on the 9th of April last the Chiefs and Rulers of Samoa signed a letter to the President of the United States, petitioning him to annex these islands to America. Sir Edward Thornton, Her Majesty's Representative at Washington, has been instructed to make inquiries as to what decision the United States Government may have arrived at with regard to this petition for annexation.