The Portland daily press., 1892-01-26

! n6rCnanU vessel Ufl6 crew Will Uuu uuciI
protection in the flag that covers them. :"
l have as yet received no reply to our
note of the 21st inst, but, in my opinion,
matters to the attention of Congress for
such action as may be deemed appro-
pirate. :,
| (Signed) BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Executive Mansion, January 26, 1892.
THE CORRESPONDENCE.
Salient Points in the Mass of Documentary
Evidence.
WASHINGTON, January 25. = The
Chilian correspondence sent to
the House to-day is very voluminous,
and published in full would occupy a
hundred columns in newspaper. 1t
dates back as far as August Is, 1890 but
the first part of it is of little Importance
as bearing on the present controversy.
Passing over so much of it as relates to
the revolution against Balmaceda with
the general remark that it seems to show
that there was no sufficient foundation for
the allegation that Mr.. Egan or. our naval
officers gave aid and support to the Bal
macedists as against the revolutionists,
and also the friendly offers of the Unit
ed States to use its good offices for the
restoration of peace which came to moth
ing we come to
The Itata Incident.
That incident was undoubtedly the
first cause of the hostility to the United
States. Mr.. Egan expressly says that
that affair ''excited great animosity
against the United States at Iquique,"
which was the headquarters of the revo-
lutionists. About the only bearing of
this incident upon the present cOntrover-
sy lies in the fact that it gave rise to this
bad feeling.
On September 4, Mr.. Wharton, who
was then acting Secretary of State, tele-
graphed Mr.. Egan to recognize the new
government which had been set up by
the successful revolutionists. The next
day, Mr.. Egan telegraphed that he had
done so, and 'that the relations with the
new government were entirely cordial"
The people, however, were not cordial,
for on September II, Mr.. Egan wrote the
department that t'since the Itata Incl
dent the young and unthinking Chilian
element have had
Bitter Feeling Against the United States,
and the English element as has always
been their custom in this country, will
do all in their power to promote and fos
ter this feeling" This bad feeling was
further promoted by the protection
which Mr.. Egan afforded the refugees at
the American legation, and it soon be-
gan to manifest itself by noisy demon
strations about the building and the az
rest by the police of persons for entering
the legation. These arrests were, Mr..
Egan wrote the department. intended to
force him to drive out the refugees,
which, he says, che will not do without
Instructions" On September 26, Mr..
Wharton instructed him to insist that
1.-THE respect and inviolability due to the
minister of the United States and to the
legation buildings, including free access,
shall be given and observed, fully and
promptly, by the Chilian authorities"
The assurance of respect and inviolabili-
ty of the legation was not forthcoming,
however, from the Chilian authorities,
they claiming that the
Refugees at the Legation
were in conspiracy against the govern
ment, an allegation which Mr.. Egan
promptly and forcibly denied. The COR
respondence on this subject between
Egan and the Chilian authorities contin-
ued some time, and the upshot of it
was that on September 30, Mr. Egan tele-
graphed the State Department that the
Chilian minister of foreign affairs s're-
fuses safe conduct or permission to refu-
gees to leave the country and maintains
the correctness of all that has been done
by the authorities"
On October the President instructed
MI. Egan to say to the Gillian authori-
ties that the President desires to estab-
lish and maintain the most friendly rela-
tions with Chill, but the right of asylum
having been tacitly, if not expressly, al
lowed to other foreign legations, and
having been exercised by our minister
with the old government in the interests
and for the safety of the adherents of
the party now in power, the President
cannot but regard the application of an
other rule, accompanied BY acts of disre-
spect to our legation, as the manifesto
ton of a most unfriendly spirit.
The Chilian authorities, while disclaim-
ing any intention of.disrespect to the Le-
cation, still continued TO claim the right
to take measures outside the Legation to
avert conspiracies on the part of the
refugees. Mr.. Egan promptly denied
the
Existence of Any Such Conspiracies
and after some correspondence Mr.. Egan
telegraphs on October 18th that the In
tendencies instructions authorize the ar
rest of no one except upon well founded
suspicion; that the minister deplores all