as well as by the party to come into power on the 4th of March.
Count Arco asked whether the situation would not in some important respects be changed by the incoming of the Republican Administration. I answered that if the German Government made a fair proposition accompanied by satisfactory assurances, a situation would, as it seemed to me, thereby be created which would have to be dealt with upon its own merits by any Administration, whatever its party character.
Count Arco observed that some persons seemed to apprehend that Mr. Blaine, if appointed Secretary of State, might be in favor of annexing the Samoan Islands to the United States, or at least of establishing an American protectorate over them. I replied that I should be slow to give weight to such an apprehension; as was well known, the traditional policy of the country was most decidedly averse to such distant annexations and to the entanglements certain to grow out of such protectorates; and that traditional policy was too deeply rooted in public opinion to be disregarded. The conservative and cautious spirit of the American people in this respect was clearly demonstrated by their refusal to accept Saint Thomas and Santo Domingo when those countries were offered to the United States.
I further suggested that a pleasant impression might be produced by the German Government permitting the publication of the so-called protocols, so as to show that there was nothing to be concealed; and I alluded to what I had said in an interview, that those minutes might at least be communicated in confidence to the Senate—which seemed to strike the Count more favorably than the publication asked for by the Ford resolution in the House of Representatives.
Count Arco expressed the hope that the “war” in
