On the morrow, November 16th, they sat down together with Blacklock in conference.

The English consul introduced his colleagues, who shook hands.

If Knappe were dead-weighted with the inheritance of Becker, Blacklock was handicapped by reminiscences of Leary; it is the more to the credit of this inexperienced man that he should have maintained in the future so excellent an attitude of firmness and moderation, and that when the crash came, Knappe and de Coetlogon, not Knappe and Blacklock, were found to be the protagonists of the drama.

The conference was futile.

The English and American consuls admitted but one cure of the evils of the time: that the farce of the Tamasese monarchy should cease.
It was one which the German refused to consider.