Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-25
THE CHILEAN MINISTER DENIES.
He Makes Public the Facts as to Min
lister Clnparede's HOnOrarium.

The attention OF Senior Cana, the Chilean
minister to the United States, having been
called to an article taken from the Chicago
Record, and published by yesterdays Star,
under the head of secretary Gresham's
Trouble" he said: THAT article does not
contain, in so far as L am concerned. a
grain OF truth; it states that l tried sew
eral times. and always unsuccessfuly, to
induce the Secretary of State to pay to Nj.
de Claparede, the Swiss minister in Wash
ington, and president of ,the mixed COM
mission OF claims. the share belonging to
the United States OF the amount due him,
in conformity with the convention of
August Z, 1892, and it as also. stated that
the Secretary of State Obstinateiy refused
to make that payment, until NJ. dc Clap
arede, first, and the Swiss legatioiI' later
on, had to make serious representations to
the Department of State, to obtain said
payment, and that is entirely incorrect.
Il never did anything to induce, as the
article says, the Secretary of State to full
fill the obligation imposed upon him by the
convention of paying to NJ de Ciaparede
the honorarinm due to him, and, as l am
informed, neither Nj. de Caparede nor the
Swiss legation in Washington has made
any representation to the State Depart
ment on that subject.
THE facts ocourred as follows: On the
18th day of April last, two days after the
mixed commission had finished its work.
Judge Gresham and myself agreed to offer
NJ. de Claparede a token of our gratitude
in behalf Of our respective governments
for the services he had rendered to both.
When NJ de Claparede was informed of cur
purpose, he at once expressed to us that
he could not accept any compensation Sec
rotary Gresham and myself then told MIN
that he could not refuse the compensation
because 1t was allowed to him by the con-
vention. and that We had the obligation
and the desire to comply with Its provisions
by paying to him the amount therein pro-
vided.
nj. de Claparede agreed, with view to
overcome some scruples he had about
certain provision Of the Swiss constitution
on this regard, that OH his way to his new
most in Vienna, he would consult the views
and wishes of his government on the SUD-
ject, and would let us know his ma! de-
cision. Several months elapsed without
our hearing from him, ana peiieVing' Judse
Gresham and myself that M. de Clape-
rede's silence was doubtless due to reasons
of great personal delicacy, we agreed that
l should write reiterating to him our desire
to come to settlement in the form sug-
o. sted before, and asking him If in doing
SO we would not conflict with ms own OF
his government views.
M de Claparede answered my letter by
saving that ne authorized us to act as we
and myself agreed, without any delay, to
comply each of us separately with the
nrovisions of the convention, and we did
so not having done 1t before, for reasons
entirely beyond our control
1.-THE foregoing statement OF facts makes
IT unnecessary for me to add that Judge
Gresham showed to me on every occasion
an earnest desire to arrange this incident
in a most delicate way, and In such q
manner as would be more agreeable to NJ.
de Claparede.
.eThis is really all that happened about
this incident and if the author of the ar
ticle published by the Chicago Record
had been careful to obtain MS m1ormation
frnrn raliab,e and impartial sources, he
certainly would not have made so many
orroraous and incorrect statements"