The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-09-01
GETTING AT The TRUTH
Guatemala'S Action in Shooting Barrun-
dia May End in a Row.
The Shooting Occurred on Board an
American Steamer and Uncle
Sam May Make Obje
to the Deed.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3l.-The state de-
partment has taken measures to secure
full particulars of the shooting of General
Barrundia ON board an American vessel,
lying in the port of San Jose by officers OF
the Guatemelan government and until the
exact facts and circumstances connecteo
with the affair are known, it does not care
to express any opinion of the case or Of
the course of Minister Miner. A case in
volving an identical principle occurred in
Nicaragua in 1885 and in that case Secre-
tary Bayard informed our minister TO
Central America that the Nicaraguan
government had right TO take the man
wanted from the American merchant ves-
sci, provided she were in Nicaraguan
waters. The case was that of Jose
Gomez.
In a letter dated Guatemala, February
10, 1885, Minister Hall informed Secretary
frelinghuysen that he had been informed
the Guatemalan government proposed TO
take from on board the Pacific mail
steamer Honduras, then lying in San Juan
Del Sur, a passenger named Gomez, in
transit for Panama but wanted i'm Near
aqua TO answer the charge of being impli-
Gated in the recent insurrection. Minister
Hall said he had directed our counsel at
Managua to inform the Nicaragua govern
ment, "that our government has never
consented and never will consent to the
arrest and removal from an American
vessel In foreign port, of any passenger
in transit, much less IL the offense is a
| political one."
The captain of the vessel did not give
up the man and sailed out OF port with
out securing proper clearance papers.
He was tried and convicted for this by the
| Nicaraguan authorities. The case came
before the state department in this way
and il held that Minister Hall had not
acted according TO the law.
| In his letter to the minister, which is
dated March u, 1885, Secretary Bayard
says: II appears that Gomez voluntarily
would enter en- route q Nicaraguan
port. 1t may safely be af-
firmed when the merchant vessel of
one country visits a port of another for
the purposes of trade il owes q temporary
allegiance and is amenable TO the juris-
diction of that country and is subject to
the laws which govern the port il visits so
long as il remains, unless otherwise pro-
vided by treaty. Any exemption or i'm
munity from league jurisdiction must be
derived from the consent of that coun-
| try.
Ii is said cases have frequently oc.
cured in which revolutionists and Others
wanted for offenses of one character or
another have been seized by the Hawaiian
government while on British merchant
ships and Great Britain has not protested,
thus establishing diplomatic prece-
dents. The Barrundia affair diff
fers from the others in that the
man was shot, But the right to seize
being conceded the right to kill, il resis-
tance is made, is an old established prin-
ciple OF law.
The principal criticism made in di'
plomatic circles of Minister MINERS
course is that of unnecessary interference
IL is suggested he might have simply
stated TO the Guatemalans that they seized
the man at their own risk. But the de
partment awaits exact information as to
what he did do.