No. 527.
Mr. Christiancy to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States
Lima,
Peru, January 28, 1880. (Received
February 25.)
No. 112.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose to you a copy of
my letter of the 24th instant to Mr. Merriam, our consul at Iquique.
I call attention to this letter, especially as regards granting clearances to
American vessels shipping nitrates from Iquique on account and under
authority of Chili. The circular of the secretary of foreign relations of
Peru on this subject will be found in my dispatch No. 106, inclosures 6,
106, and 7, 106.
It does not seem to me that the right of our consul at Iquique, holding his
exequatur from Peru, necessarily depends upon the merits of the question of
belligerent right to ship nitrates as between Peru and Chili, nor that the
question is necessarily the same as would arise upon a clearance granted by
an American consul in a Chilian port to a vessel loaded with such nitrates
But if I am in error in the advice I have given, I wish to be promptly
corrected.
The question is to me a somewhat novel one, and I have to depend upon the
general principles which seem to me applicable to the circumstances.
Fortunately, however, there is very lithe American shipping on this
coast.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 112.]
Mr. Christiancy to
Mr. Merriam
Legation of the United States,
Lima, Peru, January 24,
1880.
Sir: Your letter No. 49, of the 17th instant,
is received. I think your course in exercising your official functions
with the full consent and approbation of the Chilian authorities now in
possession of Iquique and the surrounding country, is strictly right so
long as your official acts shall in no measure be made to operate to the
injury of or in hostility to the rights of Peru, or to such as she
claims and which are still in contest between her and Chili. But any
official act which might aid either of the parties to the contest might
be complained of by the other as a departure from the duties of strict
neutrality.
You are appointed only as a consul to Peru, and hold your exequatur from
its government only, and, therefore, as it seems to me, you cannot, even
with the assent of the Chilian authorities, do any official act to which
the assent of the Peruvian Government might not fairly be presumed. That
assent may be presumed to the extent of allowing you to protect American
citizens and to exercise your ordinary functions in reference to
American seamen, and upon conflicts arising between the officers and
seamen of American merchant vessels, and no objection would now be made
to granting clearances to American vessels engaged in any other trade
than that of shipping salitres (excepting also contraband, of
course).
But the question of granting clearances to American vessels which may
load with salitres at Iquique stands upon peculiar grounds. These
salitres come from Peruvian soil, which, though now in possession of
Chili, is yet in dispute and subject to the arbitrament of arms. Peru,
in the circulars of her secretary of foreign relations, has taken the
ground that the rights of war, as the contest now stands, do not give
Chili the right to deprive the territory of this property and to
transport and sell it on Chilian account, and Peru claims that no title
can thus be acquired.
Under these circumstances, for you to grant clearances to vessels
shipping this nitrate in hostility to Peru and for the direct benefit of
Chili, may, I am inclined to think, be properly looked upon by Peru as
an unfriendly act tending to aid her enemy in the prosecution of the
war. I know that such is the view taken by the government here, and as
the shipping of this nitrate at Iquique must be under the exclusive
[Page 836]
authority of Chili, and you
are not accredited to that country, I think the Peruvian Government
would withdraw your exequatur should you grant clearances in such cases.
It is true that your refusal to grant such clearances may not stop the
injury to Peru, because the Chilian authorities may authorize their own
captain of the port or other officer to give clearances, which would
avail for what they were worth as the acts of a government or authority
de facto.
I shall lay the matter before our government and be guided by its
instructions, but in the meantime, until different instructions are
received from our government, I think the safest course for you is to
act upon the advice above given.
I am, &c.,
