§ MR. HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies if it is a fact that the Samoan people have, through their chiefs, more than once petitioned to be taken under the protectorate of Great Britain, and that such petitions have received the strong support both of Australasian Governments and organs of public opinion; and, if so, upon what grounds and upon what date or dates the Home Government has declined to secure to the British Empire the Navigator Islands, which 848 have consequently been seized by two Foreign Nations.
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONProposals for a British annexation of Samoa were made by chiefs of that group in 1877, 1883, 1884, and 1888, and were declined at those various periods on the ground that their acceptance would be impolitic, and in the later instances that foreign interests in the islands and our relations with other Powers precluded Her Majesty's Government from annexing the group. The Governments of Australia and New Zealand have in 1873 and 1884 advocated the annexation. I must add that there has been no time at which Her Majesty's Government have failed to secure the independence of these islands. Reciprocal assurances to that effect were given by Her Majesty's Government and the German Government, and the islands have not, in fact, been seized by any foreign Power.