第9章 THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD:FOREIGN(4)
the labour traffic;and I shall ask permission in this place only to touch it with the tongs.Suffice it to say that in Queensland,Fiji,New Caledonia,and Hawaii it has been either suppressed or placed under close public supervision.In Samoa,where it still flourishes,there is no regulation of which the public receives any evidence;and the dirty linen of the firm,if there be any dirty,and if it be ever washed at all,is washed in private.This is unfortunate,if Germans would believe it.But they have no idea of publicity,keep their business to themselves,rather affect to "move in a mysterious way,"and are naturally incensed by criticisms,which they consider hypocritical,from men who would import "labour"for themselves,if they could afford it,and would probably maltreat them if they dared.It is said the whip is very busy on some of the plantations;it is said that punitive extra-labour,by which the thrall's term of service is extended,has grown to be an abuse;and it is complained that,even where that term is out,much irregularity occurs in the repatriation of the discharged.To all this I can say nothing,good or bad.A certain number of the thralls,many of them wild negritos from the west,have taken to the bush,harbour there in a state partly bestial,or creep into the back quarters of the town to do a day's stealthy labour under the nose of their proprietors.Twelve were arrested one morning in my own boys'kitchen.Farther in the bush,huts,small patches of cultivation,and smoking ovens,have been found by hunters.There are still three runaways in the woods of Tutuila,whither they escaped upon a raft.And the Samoans regard these dark-skinned rangers with extreme alarm;the fourth refugee in Tutuila was shot down (as I was told in that island)while carrying off the virgin of a village;and tales of cannibalism run round the country,and the natives shudder about the evening fire.For the Samoans are not cannibals,do not seem to remember when they were,and regard the practice with a disfavour equal to our own.
The firm is Gulliver among the Lilliputs;and it must not be forgotten,that while the small,independent traders are fighting for their own hand,and inflamed with the usual jealousy against corporations,the Germans are inspired with a sense of the greatness of their affairs and interests.The thought of the money sunk,the sight of these costly and beautiful plantations,menaced yearly by the returning forest,and the responsibility of administering with one hand so many conjunct fortunes,might well nerve the manager of such a company for desperate and questionable deeds.Upon this scale,commercial sharpness has an air of patriotism;and I can imagine the man,so far from haggling over the scourge for a few Solomon islanders,prepared to oppress rival firms,overthrow inconvenient monarchs,and let loose the dogs of war.Whatever he may decide,he will not want for backing.Every clerk will be eager to be up and strike a blow;and most Germans in the group,whatever they may babble of the firm over the walnuts and the wine,will rally round the national concern at the approach of difficulty.They are so few -I am ashamed to give their number,it were to challenge contradiction -they are so few,and the amount of national capital buried at their feet is so vast,that we must not wonder if they seem oppressed with greatness and the sense of empire.Other whites take part in our brabbles,while temper holds out,with a certain schoolboy entertainment.In the Germans alone,no trace of humour is to be observed,and their solemnity is accompanied by a touchiness often beyond belief.
Patriotism flies in arms about a hen;and if you comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella,you have cast a stone against the German Emperor.I give one instance,typical although extreme.
One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail cutter complained of the vermin with which she is infested.He was suddenly and sharply brought to a stand.The ship of which he spoke,he was reminded,was a German ship.
John Caesar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands;his sons and nephews came,indeed,but scarcely to reap laurels;and the mainspring and headpiece of this great concern,until death took him,was a certain remarkable man of the name of Theodor Weber.He was of an artful and commanding character;in the smallest thing or the greatest,without fear or scruple;equally able to affect,equally ready to adopt,the most engaging politeness or the most imperious airs of domination.It was he who did most damage to rival traders;it was he who most harried the Samoans;and yet I never met any one,white or native,who did not respect his memory.All felt it was a gallant battle,and the man a great fighter;and now when he is dead,and the war seems to have gone against him,many can scarce remember,without a kind of regret,how much devotion and audacity have been spent in vain.
His name still lives in the songs of Samoa.One,that I have heard,tells of MISI UEBA and a biscuit-box -the suggesting incident being long since forgotten.Another sings plaintively how all things,land and food and property,pass progressively,as by a law of nature,into the hands of MISI UEBA,and soon nothing will be left for Samoans.This is an epitaph the man would have enjoyed.
At one period of his career,Weber combined the offices of director of the firm and consul for the City of Hamburg.No question but he then drove very hard.Germans admit that the combination was unfortunate;and it was a German who procured its overthrow.