Mr. Blaine to Mr. Kimberly.
Washington, December 22, 1890.
Sir: I have delayed until now to answer Mr. Mizner’s dispatch No. 159 of September 10 last relative to the return of the arms which were seized by the Guatemalan authorities from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s steamship Colima, at San José de Guatemala, July 18, 1890. That company desired to present certain papers bearing upon this unfortunate occurrence, and hence the question has been held in abeyance.
It appears that the Colima sailed from San Francisco for Panama and intervening ports on July 3 last, carrying as part of her cargo [Page 143] certain arms and ammunition consigned to the minister of war of the Republic of Salvador. The Colima arrived at San José de Guatemala July 17, and thereupon the commandant of the port threatened to seize the arms and ammunition. The reasons assigned therefor were not always, perhaps, consistently maintained in the various conferences which were held, but it sufficiently appears that the only real ground relied upon by the Guatemalan authorities was that the steamship was carrying the arms in violation of the terms of the company’s contract with the Government of Guatemala. The same day Mr. Leverich, the company’s agent, and the Guatemalan minister of foreign affairs, at a conference at which Mr. Mizner was present, agreed that the arms and ammunition should be transferred from the Colima to the City of Sydney, another steamship of the same company then about to sail northward, and that they should be stored in the company’s hulk at Acapulco, Mexico. The arms and ammunition were transferred on the morning of the 18th from the Colima to a small boat in order to be taken on board the City of Sydney, as agreed, whereupon the Guatemalan authorities diverted the course of the boat to the shore and appropriated the arms and ammunition to their own use. In the meantime the authorities had threatened to do the Colima injury if the arms and ammunition were not delivered up, and there is reason to believe that a Krupp gun on shore was pointed at the ship to further menace her. The Colima proceeded on her voyage the evening of the 18th; and afterwards, in compliance with the repeated demands of Minister Mizner, the arms and ammunition were gathered together and returned, on August 31, to another ship of the company and were taken back to San Francisco.
The alleged basis for the action of the Guatemalan authorities was that the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, by the carriage of the arms, had violated its contract with the Government of Guatemala dated February 27, 1886, subsequently renewed June 17, 1889, the seventeenth article of which reads as follows:
The company binds itself not to permit troops or munitions of war to be carried on board of its steamers from any of the ports of call to the ports of, or adjacent to, Guatemala, if there be reason to believe that these materials may be used against Guatemala or that war or pillage is intended.
Whether the act of the Colima was in violation of this article or not is for the present purpose unimportant. Even if it were, it is submitted that there is no warrant either in the contract or otherwise for the seizure of the articles carried. There was not a state of war existing, and the seizure can not be justified as contraband of war. The arms, to be sure, were not taken from the Colima; but the manner by which the agreement for their transfer was obtained, viz, by menace, and the manner in which it was broken and the arms taken from the small boat are necessarily connected and must be treated as constituting parts of one transaction. And, furthermore, an American ship and her passengers were menaced and threatened with destruction. Whether her owners had or had not violated some contract entered into with the local Government is no excuse whatever for the action of the Guatemalan authorities.
It appears from a memorandum of an interview between Mr. Mizner and the Guatemalan minister of foreign affairs (inclosure No. 2, Mr. Mizner’s No. 159) that the latter admitted that his Government had been in the wrong and agreed to return the arms with certain formalities implying that admission, which agreement, however, was not kept. Mr. Mizner says: [Page 144]
It was fully understood that the arms should he put on the first mail steamer going north, which in this instance was the San Blas, the same commandant who took them from the Colima to go on board in uniform and officially deliver them to the captain of the San Blas, with invoices and explanations and such other formalities as might be usual and proper in such cases. All of this the commandant neglected to do. The arms were received on board of the San Blas on the 31st ultimo (August) unaccompanied by any officer or representative of the Government, or any invoice, explanation, or direction whatever.
The Honorable Secretary of the Navy has received a like report from Lieut. Commander George C. Reiter, commanding the U. S. S. Ranger, which was in the port of San José when the arms were returned in the above-described irregular manner.
Without going into details or further considering at this time the extent of the wrong committed, this Government considers that it is clearly entitled to some satisfactory apology or reparation from the Government of Guatemala for the indignity thus offered to an American ship. It would prefer, however, that some suggestion to that end should come from the latter Government itself.
You are directed to read this instruction to the minister of foreign affairs and to leave a copy with him if he so desires.
I am, sir, etc.,