For the moment the news of the complications and fighting at Samoa has di placed the Philippine campaign in the attention of the public, though it is expected that a peaceful solution of the Gifficulties on the part of three interested nations—Great. Britain, Germany, and the United States—will be reached.
It will be recalled that Mataafa had, by the Berlin Treaty, been declared ineligible to the throne and that recently he hnd been ostensibly chosen King by the people of the islands. Following this, Chief Justice Chambers (an American) ruled that Mataafa could not be sented and declared Malictoa Tanu duly elected King. This decision was given the support of the British and American Consuls, but was opposed and ignored by the German Consul-General Rose, who maintained that Moataafa was in fact and rightfully king.
The prospect of trouble occasioned the dispatch thither of the U.S. cruiser Philaadelphia with Rear Admiral Kautz, who become the ranking naval officer there. Soon after his arrival the Consuls of the three powers and the senior naval officers were assembled in the cabin of the Phila-delphin for " conference. A proclamation was issued as a result, repudiating the pretensions of Mataafa, warning his followers to return to their homes and up. holding the authority of the Chief Justice.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.