school system, the construction and the staffing of a hospital major successes. Road and harbour facilities development was accelerated. The Samoan colony was on its way to self-sufficiency and had reached that achievement just before Solf was called to Berlin and was succeeded by Erich Schultz as Governor of German Samoa. Later career After his return from Samoa, Solf became (1911) Secretary (Staatssekretär) of the German Colonial Office (Reichskolonialamt) to 1918 and travelled extensively to the German protectorates in West and East Africa in 1912 and 1913. In the spring of 1914, Solf designed coats of arms for the various German colonies, a project which found enthusiastic favour with Wilhelm II, but his efforts were foiled by the outbreak of World War I a few months later, and the arms were never officially used. The outbreak of World War I caused Germany's colonial possessions to be invaded by the United Kingdom (including the dominions), Belgium, France and Japan. Solf lobbied for a negotiated peace settlement in 1917 and 1918. He opposed the implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare, a policy that eventually contributed to the entry of the United States to the war in 1917. With the defeat of Germany imminent and the likelihood of revolution growing, he was appointed as what turned out to be the last of the Imperial Foreign Ministers in October 1918. In that capacity, he undertook negotiations for the armistice that took effect on 11 November 1918. He resigned his post as Foreign Minister on 13 December 1918 with the onset of the German Revolution after news about the payment of about 1-million Mark and a 10.5-million Russian ruble mandate for a bank account at Mendelssohn & Co by the Russian ambassador to Germany, Adolph Joffe, to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany politician Oskar Cohn had become public. Solf refused further co-operation with the USPD. Between then and 1920, he served as Vice President of the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft. From 1920 to 1928, he served as the German chargé d'affaires and then ambassador to Japan; his tenure proved to be fruitful, as he was instrumental in restoring good relations between the two World War I enemies, which culminated in the signing of the German-Japanese Treaty of 1927. On Solf's return to Germany and his retirement from government service, he became the Chairman of the Board of the based in Stuttgart. Solf held centrist political views