The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-01-26
Special to the REcoRD-UNrox.


WAsHINGToN, Jan. 25.-President Harri-
con to-day submitted to Congress message
IN relation to the Chilean question, accom-
panied by the correspondence which has been
carried on between this Government and
Chile concerning the matter. The message
reads as follows:
To the Senate and House Of Representatives:
IN my annual message delivered to Congress
at the beginning of the present session, after q
brief statement of the facts then in the posses
sion of this Government touching the assault
IN the streets of Valparaiso, Chile, upon the
sailors OF the United States steamship Balti-
more on the evening of the 10th OF October
last, / said: This Government is now await
ing the result of the investigation which has
been conducted by the Criminal Court at val
paraiso. 1t is reported unoifcially that the
investigation is about completed, and it is ex-
Dected that the result viii be communicated
y o this Government, together with some ade-
quate and satisfactory response to the note by
which the attention of Chile was called 10 this
4ncideht. II these just expectations should
De disappointed and a further needless delay
intervcnes ! will by special message bring this
matter to the attention of Congress for sucn
action as may be necessary" IN my opinion
the time has now come when ] should lay be-
fore Congress and the country the correspond
ence between this Government and the Gov
ernment of Chile from the time of the break
ing out of the revolution against Balmaceda,
together with all other facts in possession OF
The Executive Department Jelating TO this
matter. The diplomatic correspondence is
herewith transmitted, together with some cor
TeSpOndence between the naval officer fOra time
IA command IN Chilean waters, and the Secre-
iary of the Navy, and also the evidence taken
at the Mare Island Navy-yard since the ar
rival of the Baltimore at san Francisco. l do
not deem il necessary in this munication
20 attempt any full analysis of the CORE
spondence or evidence. A brief restatement
OF the international questions involved, and
The reasons why the responses OF the Chilean
Government were unsatisfactory, Is all deem
necessary.
It may be well at the outset TO say that
whatever may have been said in this country
or Chile in criticism of Egan, our Minister
ut Santiago, the true history of this exciting
period in Chilean affairs from the outbreak of
The revolution until this time discloses no & ct
on the part of EgaR unworthy his position or
that could justly occasion serious animao YER
Sions or criticism. He has l think on the
whole, borne himself in the very trying cir
cumstances vita dignity, discretion and coul-
age, and has conducted the correspondence
with ability, courtesy and ffrmness.
1t is worth while, also, at the beginning to
say that the right of Egan TO give shelter in
Eae legation TO certain adherents of the Bal
maceaa Government who applied 10 him for
aSylum has not been denied by the Chilean
authorities, nor has any demand been made
COR the surrender OF these refugees. That there
was urgent need for asylum was shown b :
Egan's note of August "a, 1891, describing
the disorders that prevailed in Santiago ana
by the evidence of Captain Scnley, as to pill
iage and violenc e that prevailed at Valparaiso.
The correspondence discloses, however that
the request of Egan for safe conduct from the
country in behalf of these refugees was denied
The precedents cited by him in the CORE
spondence, particularly in the case of the
revolution in Peru, in 1865, did not leave the
Chilean Government in a position TO deny the
right of asylum to political refugees, and
seemed very clearly TO support Egan'S con-
lention that safe conduct TO neutral territory
was necessary, and acknowledged the mel
dent of asylum. These refugees have very
recently, without formal safe conducts, but by
The acquiescence of the Chilean authorities,
been placed on board the YORKTOWN, and are
now being conveyed to Callao, Peru. TINS
ine 1icrhf & 1n
but for the disrespect manifested toward this
Government by close and often
sive police surveillance of the legation
premises. maintained during most of the
period while the refugees were therein. Tn
der date OF my annual message, and up TO the
line of the transfer of the refugees 10 the
Yorktown, the legation premises seem to have
been surrounded by police in uniform and
police agents or detectives in citizens dress
Who Extensively ScrutiniZed persons entering
or leaving the legation, and on one or more
occasions arrested members of the Minister'S
1amily. Commander Evans, who by my di-
rections recently visited Egan at Santiago,
IN his telegram TO the Navy Department de
scribed the legation as a ''veritable prison. -
and states that police agents or detectives
we're, after his arrival, withdrawn during his
stay.
It appears further from note of Egan on
November 20, 1891, that on one occasion, at
least. these police agents, whom he declares to
De known TO him, invaded the legation prem
Uses, pounding on its windows and using in
shifting threatening language toward the per-
rom police espionage and restraint seems to
have been so Migrant that the Argentine Min
lster who was Dean of the diplomatic
corps. having observed it, felt called
upon to protest against it to the Chilean Min
ister of Foreign Affairs. The Chilean authori-
lies have. as will be observed from the CORE
spondence charged the refugees and inmates
of the legation with insulting the police, but it
seems TO me incredible that men whose lives
were in Jeopardy, and whose safety could
only be secured by retirement and quietness,
should have provoked a collision which could
only end in their destruction, or to aggrayate
their condition by intensifying popular feel
ing that at one time so threatened the lega-
lion as to require Egan TO appeal 10 the Minis
Ter OF Foreign Affairs.
But the most serious incident disclosed by
the correspondence was that of the attack on
the sailors OF the Baltimore in the streets OF
Valparaiso on the 10th OF October last. In
my annual message, speaking upon the IN
formation then in my possession, L SAID that
rs tar as l could have been able to learn no
other explanation of this bloody work had
been suggested than that it had It's
origin in hostility to these men
as sailors OF the United States wearing
the uniform of their Government. and not in
any individual act or personal animosity. We
have now received from the Chilean Govern
ment an abstract OF the conclusions OF the