Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1888, Part I

No. 427.
Mr. Coleman to Mr. Bayard.

[Telegram.]

Legation of the United States,
Berlin, November 4, 1887. (Received Novembers.)

Mr. Coleman informs Mr. Bayard that during an interview which he has had today with Count von Bismarck, in pursuance of Mr. Bayard’s telegram of November 2, the count wholly acquiesced in Mr. Bayard’s views with reference to the position of Mr. Sewell, United States consul-general at Apia, and stated that as a matter of course Germany would not interfere. Her aid had only been given to preserve order, and she would faithfully adhere to the understanding between the treaty powers.

Count von Bismarck had on the previous day visited Prince Bismarck, who regretted that the two nations should differ as to affairs on those remote and unimportant islands while their relations elsewhere were so friendly, and suggested that a dispatch should be sent on the subject from the foreign office.