The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-03-11
MISSING DOCUMENTS.
The Chill Peruvian Correspondence
Investigation.
CHIEF OF THE CONSULAR BUREAU
OF STATISTICS EXAMINED.

WASHINGTON, March 10.-The committee ON
foreign affairs who are charged with the in
vesti cation of the Chili-Pefuvlan correSpon-
dence with view of fixing the responsibility
for the abstraction of certain state papers from
the files of the State Department, resumed the
examination of witnesses this afternoon.
Francis o. st. Clair, chief the consular bureau,
in the State Department, was questioned Dy
the chairman in regard to the disposition OF
letters and correspondence coming through tne
mails. Witness has charge OF letters from
consuls and all letters addressed to consuls,
and would recognize the right of the chief
clerk or secretary to the withdrawal OF any
papers from his custody, but no other person.
Witnese remembered indexing one letter from
Shepherd in May, 1881, about the 18th Some
time after witness was made Chief OF the
Bureau, probably about the 10th of August,
call was made for certain letters of the Shep-
herd correspondence. 81 made search for
certain letter which had been indexed in my
handwriting. could not find it ard asked
Walker Blaine If the Secretary had it. He
said he did not know, but would seeif it was at
his house. After this l did not hear more
about it, Witness was under the impression
either Mr. Prescott or Secretary Blaine called
for letters, and up to the time when 1t was
found they were lost he had no recoiiectioh Oh
their being catled for by any one else. j.,
Witness remembered having seen several OF
these letters upon his desk long after their
date but did not know who might nave had
them in the meantime. witness continued:
SIN August the discovery was made that sew
eral of these letters were missing. said |
would try to find them-the one had indexed
= but would not be responsible for those l had
not indexed I failed TO find any of them. L
never said anything to the Secretary on the
subject and never heard anything from Walker
Blaine. Mr. Trescott frequently called for
papers and we used to let him have them with
out an order from the Secretary. | understood
he (Trescott) was in the employ of the depsrt-
ment as counsel.
No original papers are permitted to be taken
from the department. Mr.. PRESCOTT was IN
vestigating the Chili-Peruvian matter and my
impression is he called for them; no other per.
the department are allowed in the index de-
partment. Witness said, sit is my impression
Mr. Prescott was assigned to the duty
of preparing drafts of letters on the
CALIFORNIAN affair and had room in
the department but L don't know
of my own knowledge that ne held any official
DC 3ition in the department He appeared to
act in confidential relation with the Secre-
tary. presumed the letters were found at
that time, in August, and it is my impression
they will be found at Mr.. Trescott's house in
this city. do not believe they have been alb
stracted from the department to be suppressed or
destroyed. 1t is not an unusual thing for papers
to be lost for months and subsequently found
in the department; in other words, they are
misplaced for the time being. His (St. Clair's)
ground for thinking the missing papers may be
in Mr.. Trescott's possession, or at his house, is
that from the nature Of Mr.. Trescott's relation
to the department in this Chili-Peruvian mat
ter he would naturally examine these papers
tits expected Mr.. Shipherd will testify be-
fore the committee tomorrow.