No. 65.
Mr. Pettis
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
La Paz,
Bolivia, August 25, 1879.
(Received October 16.)
No. 23]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your dispatch of the 23d June last (No. 12), and have, in compliance with
directions therein contained, called the attention of the minister for
foreign relations of Bolivia to the subject of your dispatch, as will appear
from a copy of my said letter herewith forwarded, marked inclosure 1.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in Mr. Pettis’s No.
23.]
Legation of the United States,
La Paz, August 25,
1879.
Sir: I am informed by an official dispatch from
Washington that the United States Government has received information
that the British Government has lately been informed that the Government
of Bolivia has decreed the issue of letters of marque, with authority to
privateers to seize Chilian property in neutral vessels, and that agents
have departed for the United States, and assuming that my government has
been correctly informed, I am directed by it to call the attention of
the Bolivian Government to the treaty of 1858, and especially to the
sixteenth article thereof, which stipulates
[Page 128]
for the freedom from capture or confiscation of
effects or goods belonging to subjects or citizens of a power or state
at war when found on board of neutral vessels, with the exception of
articles contraband of war.
May I ask your excellency to be kind enough to advise me whether the
information received by my government touching the decree of the
Bolivian Government, hereinbefore referred to, is correct or not?
Allow me to renew to your excellency the assurances of the high
consideration with which I have the honor to remain, &c.,
