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Blount Report: Affairs in Hawaii

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374	HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.
Mr. Stevens to Mr. Foster.
[Confidential.]
No. 72.]	UNITED STATES LEGATION,
Honolulu, October 31, 1892.
SIR: In dispatch 71, of October 19, I gave account of the rejection 
of the new cabinet appointed by the Queen in defiance of a previously 
expressed majority of the Legislature. The deadlock continues. 
Though two weeks have elapsed since the decisive action of the Legis- 
lature, no ministers have been designated to fill the vacancies. The 
Tahitian favorite and the Queen still refuse to take the legislative 
majority and the leading business men of the islands into their confi- 
dence. The palace is still thronged and surrounded by the worst 
elements, and the responsible citizens feel that they are not welcomed 
as advisors. The Queen and the Tahitian have made several new 
ministerial slates, with one responsible man and three of the other 
kind; but no responsible man, so far, can be found who will go into the 
cabinet with the three whom only a minority of the Legislature will 
accept.
Thus there is here, on a small scale, the old historic issue between 
autocracy and parliamentary responsibility. The foreign adventurers  
and renegades stand by the Tahitian favorite because he is the instru- 
ment which they can use, and he adheres to them because he needs 
their support. In the meantime the Legislature is unable to do busi- 
ness and has been in session only a few hours for several weeks. If 
that body holds firm, the Queen will have to yield, and a responsible 
ministry would probably bo the result. The ultra-English influence is 
strongly with the half-English Tahitian favorite and the Queen, for the 
one reason only, that the success of the legislative majority would be 
the appointment of a cabinet strongly American in sympathy and pur- 
pose. There are strong reasons for the belief that were it not for the 
presence of the American naval force in the harbor the Tahitian mar- 
shal and his gang would induce the Queen to attempt a coup d'etat by 
proclaiming a new constitution, taking from the legislature the power 
to reject ministerial appointments.
The recent arrival here from England of T. H. Davies, the head of a 
strong English house in Honolulu, formerly a resident here for many 
years, has served to intensify the ultra-English feeling and to strengthen 
the American sentiment. This T. II. Davies having made himself rich 
under the sugar provisions of the reciprocity treaty, now resides in 
England and has a kind of supervisory care of the half-white Hawaiian 
crown princess, for several years and still at school in England. When 
a resident here at the time the Pearl Harbor provision was pending, 
Davies strongly opposed that provision. He comes now, with revived 
zeal against the Pearl Harbor concession. It is not thought that he 
has any encouragement to this course from the home Government of 
England, but that his course is his own, and that his zeal is increased by 
the Canadian Pacific Railroad managers, of whom Davies is the agent. 
The desperate efforts of that road to save itself embrace the scheme of 
a cable, and Pacific steamer lines to Australia and China, including the 
design of antagonizing the interests of the United States in these 
islands. This involves the plan of controlling the Hawaiian monarchy 
through the present Queen and her favorite, and especially by having 
in hand the crown princess, the general belief being that the present 
Queen will not live many years. Davies, who has this supervising care

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