The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-01-29
LEGATION OF CHILE,
WASHINGTON. Jan. sd


SIR: have had the honor to receive
your note of yesterday, as Enclosure to
which you were pleased to transmit TO
mo the instructions sent to Egan on the
day previous. In the conferences with
which you have been pleased to favor me,
I have been informed that Immediately
after the occurrence of October 10th, at
Valparaiso, which my Government most
sincerely deplored, the judicial author
tiles invited an investigation necessary to
throw light upon the facts and to detect
and punish the guilty parties. From the
antecedents which the Government OF
Chile was able to collect at the
very outset it appeared that the
disorder Of October 10th began by a
quarrel among drunken sailors, which
assumed considerable proportions, owing
10 the condition of the locality in which
ii originated, and the police performed
their duty by re-establishing tranquility
and placing the persons who seemed to
have been concerned in the disorder at
the disposal of the court.
The Government of Chile has no data
authorizing it to think the quarrel was
due to any dislike of the uniform of the
United States, or that the police failed to
perform their duty. On the contrary, ii
IS a well-demonstrated fact that sailors
get Intoxicated when they go ashore after
having been on board their vessel for a
long time. This is also quite natural.
The intoXication of seamen and the
disorders to which it gives rise, although
they may assume serious proportions
and occasion very lamentable offenses, as
the unfortunate case at Valparaiso on the
10th of October, cannot constitute an in
suit to a nation in whose. service are men
who have taken part in the disorder al
though they certainly do not Justify the
OffenseS committed during the disorder
The Government of Chile could not,
l.
the nature OF the occurrence IN question,
or as TO whether the police had or had not
improperly participated therein, or had
failed to perform their duty, until the ter
mination of the judicial inquiry, initiated
without delay, and which pushed for
ward as speedily as compatible with the
provisions of the law. with the obligation
OF collecting all the elements of proof
that it was possible to collect in order to
throw full light upon the matter, and
with the necessity of Furnishing the per-
petrators of an outrage which had been
committed, and which had been in part
suffered by persons in the service of a
friendly nation. 1t was the desire and
duty of the Government of Chile to dis
cover the truth in order to make its future
proceedings conform thereto, and in
order that the United States Government
might be satisfied that nothing was
neglected in order to do full justice.
You were pleased with your high sense
of rectltude to remark to me that this
proceeding of the Government of Chile
was correct, and although you desired
that the judicial investigation might be
brought to a close with as little delay as
possible, you understood that it was
necessary that ordinary legal proceedings
(which are not as rapid in Chile as in the
United StateS) should be held.
l have taken occasion at sundry times
to inform you of what the Chilean author
tiles were doing to bring the inVeStiga-
lion to close. In the criminal trial held
at Valparaiso, not only have the lands
men been heard, but also the seamen OF
the Baltimore. Both have been con-
1ronted with each other. The reports OF
physicians and experts have been called
Tor, the opinion of the surgeon of the
cruiser has likewise been invoked. and.
in a word, nothing has been neglected
that could tend to bring the whole truth
10 light.
The seamen of the Baltimore made
their statements with the assistance of an
interpreter designated by themselves,
who was an officer of the cruiser. so that
the oath taken by the witnesses. their
conformation with each other, the re-
ports of experts concerning the cause the
nature of the wounds and the hearing
granted both Chileans and Americans, so
that all might present their complaints
and charges and be heard in their own
justification, give incontestible authority
10 the trial held at Valparaiso.
In the course of our conferences we
have sometimes considered a case in
which the Government of the United
States and that of Chile should fail to
agree when the investigation should be
terminated and the two Governments
should have formed their final opinion,
and agreed to arbitration as the best
means of settling the difficulty and adj
vancing farther in this conciliatory
spirit. We have ever formally agreed