A.—4c.

communication regarding the conclusion of a German-Samoan treaty refers to the agreement signed at Apia on the 10th November last by the Imperial representative in Samoa, Consul-General Dr. Stiibel, and the Samoan Government in execution of the seventh article of the German-Samoan treaty of friendship of the 24th January, 1879. The undersigned has the honour to send the enclosed German translation of this agreement for perusal, and begs to express the hope of his Government that the British Government will therefrom convince itself that the agreements come to are confined within the frame of the German treaty with Samoa, and impair neither the indepence of this group of islands nor the rights acquired by other nations there. The benefits of a greater legal security and of an improved administration of penal justice, the establishment of which is aimed at by the agreement in question, will be shared .by the subjects of other treaty-Powers resident there; while by Article 7 only the Germans interested are burdened with the expenses of the arrangements made. The Imperial Government intends to ratify this agreement, subject to closer examination of details, and to take care that its provisions be exactly carried out on the part of Samoa also. It counts upon not having its effort to establish order in that group of islands crossed from any other quarter. The undersigned is charged to refer once more in this connection to these petitions addressed on. the sth November last by the King and chiefs of Samoa to Her Majesty the Queen of England and to the Governor and Ministers of the Colony of New Zealand. The text of these petitions is now before the Imperial Government, and confirms the conjecture already expressed that they are written by English subjects, and signed under the influence of false representations regarding an act of violence planned by Germans against the independence of Samoa. From these documents it further appears that so early as the beginning of last year King Malietoa had, by means of a similar petition, secretly offered the sovereignty over his country to the British Government. The circumstance that no disapproval had been expressed of the conduct of those who had seduced the King into this step has evidently contributed to encourage further attempts in this direction. The Imperial Government confidently expects that the instructions of the British Government, of the despatch of which a prospect is now held out, will also succeed in putting an end to the similar agitation carried on from New Zealand." To the foregoing summary of the new "White Book'l have little to add. How the English Government means to dispose of the German protest against its annexation of a portion of the coast of New Guinea does not appear; but the two Governments at least are at a perfect deadlock on the question. Will Lord Granville strike his colours once more, in homage to the will of the Chancellor? It only remains to be said that the above-quoted note on the Samoan treaty fairly reflects the spirit of irritation which has been excited in Prince Bismarck by the belief that the English Government is hostile to his colonial schemes.

No. 72. Memoranda of Conversations between Mr. Meade and Prince Bismarck and Dr. Busch. No. 1. Mbmoeandum by Mr. Meade. Hotel Eoyal, Berlin, 10th February, 1885. I obseeve that the White Book on the subject of New Guinea and the Western Pacific, just issued, contains some portion of the confidential memorandum which I handed to Dr. Busch after my conversation with him of the 7th December. As this has given rise to misconceptions, it may perhaps be thought right to present to Parliament the whole of that memorandum, as well as my further reports, including that of the interview which His Serene Highness Prince Bismarck was good enough to give me on the 24th December. The conversation with Dr. Busch, in which I developed to him a suggestion of my own for the general arrangement of questions pending between us in New Guinea and the South Seas, was purely personal and unofficial. I took every possible precaution that this should be clear, and it was so accepted by Dr. Busch. He called on me a week later to tell me that Prince Bismarck wished to discuss the matter with me himself. If I had anticipated that the confidential character of my proposal would thereby be removed, and that it would be published, I should have either refrained from carrying on the discussion or gone into much greater detail. Finding in Berlin a strong impression as to our supposed antagonism to German colonization, I thought it would be well to endeavour to define some general policy which might place our colonial relations with Germany on a better footing. Hence my conversation with Dr. Busch of the 7th December. Had I been given any hint at the time of this conversation that Germany, in contravention of what every one of us at home believed to be the understanding between the two Governments, had assumed a protectorate over any part of New Guinea, I should never have broached the subject; but it was discussed between us as if no such step had ever been contemplated. There seems to be some not unnatural misapprehension in England, and, consequently, I fear, in the colonies, as to my observations in regard to the New Hebrides, and I should like to explain that my reference to those islands was solely intended to show that Germany and England are not the only powers interested in the South Seas. The questions between England and France respecting this particular group were our own concern, and I therefore merely mentioned the subject, without going into the details of what we should require from France as an equivalent for the withdrawal of the understanding as to the independence of the New'Hebrides. It is, of course, obvious that I never intended to propose to give the New Hebrides to France as part of a bargain with Germany, or to surrender any British claims there, except upon terms which,

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