Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 9, 1891

Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.

Legation of the United States,
Santiago, October 17, 1891. (Received November 27.)

No. 209.]

Sir: Since my dispatch No. 208 I had the honor to receive your telegram of the 6th instant, requesting full report upon number of refugees in this and other legations now and since the overthrow of the Balmaceda Government, the treatment of the other legations by the Chilean authorities, and the crimes with which the refugees are or were accused; also, whether any safe-conducts have been given to refugees in other legations.

To this I replied by telegram on the 8th instant, giving the full particulars desired, from which it will be seen that during the turbulence and sack of the houses of prominent Balmacedists which followed the news of the result of the battle of Placillas the other legations, or all of them that had accommodation, gave asylum to a greater or less extent. The Spanish legation had for several days some eighty persons, about the same number that were in this legation, the Brazilian, French, Uruguay and others each having from one or two to ten refugees.

When the first excitement settled down, many of those persons went out of the legations some who had but slight responsibility giving bonds to appear before the tribunals when required and others seeking concealment in the houses of the supporters of the successful party. In this legation there remain now fourteen, one having gone out under bonds since the date of my telegram, five in the Spanish legation, and one in the German legation.

I have already in my No. 205, of the 29th September, as well as in my telegram of 8th instant, explained the action of the Chilean authorities toward the other legations and the nature of the charges against the refugees. I should, however, mention another incident that may be of interest. The German legation only rents a limited number of apartments in a large house, and the room which Gen. Velasquez occupies was not embraced in the number of rooms so rented, but an adjoining one, which the German minister had procured specially for the purpose. The police authorities, on learning this, arrested Gen. Velasquez and carried him to the prison, but as soon as the Junta de Gobierno learned the facts they atonce had him returned from the prison to the same room.

Only one person, a Col. Mason, took refuge in the English legation, and he was immediately allowed to go to his house under promise that he would remain there, but was not given safe-conduct out of the country.

The Spanish and Brazilian legations applied for safe-conducts to enable certain refugees to leave the country, but did not succeed in obtaining them.

Under date of 9th instant I received from the minister of foreign relations a note, in reply to mine of 1st instant, copy inclosed (inclosure 1), in which, in reference to the actions of the authorities toward the legations during 23d, 24th, and 25th September, he says:

According to the report of the intendente of Santiago, and according to the instructions given to him by the ministers of foreign relations and interior since the beginning and during the course of this question, the ingress to and egress from the legation have been free; notwithstanding that persons who have entered and gone out and who inspired well-founded suspicion that they were, or might be, agents of illegal attempts on the part of the refugees, may have been arrested and conducted to the intendencia; being arrested not in the house of the legation, nor even near to it, but more frequently at a considerable distance from the street in which the United States legation is situated.

Never, according to the official report of the intendencia, has there been inflicted, or desired to be inflicted, vexation or injury to the legation or to its chief or to its employés.

And further he adds:

The minister can be assured the undersigned deplores all errors of this kind by the police agents that may have been committed against any person not comprehended in the number which they should watch and even arrest.

In reference to the question of safe-conduct for the refugees he says:

Since the decree of 14th of September last was published, the persons therein referred to have been subject to the judicial power of the country, and the Supreme Junta and its secretaries have been therefore deprived of the power to grant that which has been asked for and which Mr. Egan considers would be a friendly manifestation toward the United States legation.

After farther dwelling upon the effects of the decree referred to, the minister says:

The undersigned would be pleased, in addition, to give the assurance that if it were possible without disrespect to the law, the prestige of the Government action, and contrary to the interests of Chile to give this proof of friendship toward the legation of North America, it should be given.

I communicated the contents of this note by telegram.

On 16th instant I replied in a note, of which I inclose copy (inclosure 2), reaffirming to the honorable minister the correctness of the statements which I had made in regard to the arrest of all persons going out from the legation, assuring him that the occurrences did not take place with the measure of discretion which the intendente of Santiago had reported, and stating that in view of the gravity of what had taken place, and in view also of the fact that the legation is now reinvested with the guaranties which it should always possess, I felt that I should remit to my Government all of the facts and leave to it the final resolution with regard to the question.

I shall, upon this question, await instructions.

In regard to the question of safe-conduct, I replied, referring to the fact of the recognition by the honorable minister that the asylum had been legitimately given by me in compliance with the duties of civilization and humanity, that the refugees are virtually in foreign territory; that the decree of the minister of justice of 14th September, or even a law of local effect, could not destroy usages and customs that are international; that said decree could not therefore reach the persons who might be in the legations and beyond the jurisdiction; and that, therefore, the Government of Chile is, in my judgment, at most perfect liberty to concede the safe-conducts; and further that it could do so most logically in view of the international policy which it has always maintained.

I then proceeded to cite two cases, to which I beg to call your particular attention, in which the Government of Chile distinctly recognized and approved the right of safe-conduct as a necessary adjunct to the right of asylum. The first arose out of the revolution in Peru in the year 1865, under the leadership of Col. Prado, against the then President, Gen. Pezat, in which the latter was defeated. He and his prominent supporters were obliged to seek asylum, and many of them found shelter in the French, Spanish, Chilean, and other legations. Señor Don Alvario Covarrubias, Chilean minister of foreign relations, instructed Señor Don Mareial Martinez, Chilean minister plenipotentiary in Peru, for his guidance:

• First. That foreign legations can not grant asylum to common criminals, who should be delivered to the local authorities when they claim them.
• Second. That the legations can concede asylum to political refugees for the time necessary to enable them to leave the country, with which purpose the diplomatic agent should put himself in accord with the minister of foreign affairs of the country to which he is accredited, in order to send the refugee to a foreign country under the necessary guaranties.

As a result of the negotiation on that occasion, the refugees in the several legations were permitted to go out of the country, and they were accompanied on board ships in Callao by the foreign ministers and in some cases by the foreign consuls.

Full particulars of this case will be found in a pamphlet printed by the Peruvian Government, entitled: “Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores. Correspondencia Diplomática relativa á la cuestion sobre asilo, publicada por órden de S. E. el Jefe Supremo Provisorio, para ser presentada al Congreso Gonstituente. Lima, Imprenta del Estado. Por J. Enrique del Campo, 1867.”

The second case is that of the International South American Congress held in Montevideo in the year 1888 and beginning of 1889, in which was adopted the following very important resolution on the question of asylum:

Art. 17. A common criminal who has taken refuge in a legation shall be delivered by the chief of such legation to the local authorities upon the previous demand of the minister of foreign relations, when not done spontaneously.

Said asylum shall be respected with regard to those pursued on political charges, but the chief of the legation is obliged to immediately bring the fact to the knowledge of the Government of the state before which he is accredited, and said Government can require that the refugee shall be placed outside the national territory within the shortest possible period.

The chief of the legation shall have the right to require, in like manner, the necessary guaranties to enable the refugee to go out from the national territory, the inviolability of his person being respected.

The same principle shall be observed with respect to those who may have taken refuge in ships anchored in territorial waters.

The above is a translation from pages 305 and 306 of “Anexo á la memoria del Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores” of the Republic of Uruguay for 1889.

This article No. 17 was warmly supported by the Chilean delegates, Don Belisario Prats, one of the judges of the supreme court, and Don Guillermo Matta, brother of the present minister of foreign relations, and by them finally approved in the name of the Republic of Chile. It was also approved by the delegates of the Argentine Republic and of the Republics of Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

I have argued that every recognized right, whether civil or international, must receive a rational interpretation and a practical application, and that it would be absurd to consider that the right of asylum should be made a mockery for the diplomatic agent who grants it and a snare for the refugee who seeks it by converting the legation into a permanent prison, and that therefore, logically as well as in conformity with what I had shown to be the international policy and compromises of Chile, the safe-conducts ought to be conceded. I at same time forwarded a complete list of the refugees in the legation.

I informed you by telegraph to-day of the chief points in this note.

I also inclose copy in print (inclosure 3) of the decree already referred to of 14th September last, under which the ministers, senators, deputies, and officials of the late Government are submitted to the tribunals, and but for which the honorable minister intimates he should be pleased to concede the safe-conducts asked for as a proof of friendship towards this legation.

I have, etc.,

Patrick Egan.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 209.—Translation.]

Señor Matta to Mr. Egan.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Santiago, October 9, 1891.

Sir: This department received your excellency’s note of the 1st at 1 p.m. on the 2d of the current month, which the undersigned hastens to answer as briefly as possible.

The instructions which your excellency has received from your Government, and in compliance with which your excellency affirms and repeats that “the respect and inviolability due to the minister accredited by the United States and to the dwelling of the legation, including free ingress and egress, should he fully and promptly given and observed,” in no way modifies the state of the question, neither are they in contradiction with the manner of thinking of the undersigned.

The undersigned has not the right to inquire into, and less the intention to discuss, the instructions received by your excellency, nor the data and the foundations from which they emanate, and confines himself only to that which is his duty and that within his knowledge. It would be indiscreet, if not disrespectful, toward the Government that gives and the minister that receives the instructions—such a thing being possible—to inquire into or discuss them.

According to the report of the intendente of Santiago and according to the instructions given to him by the minister of foreign relations and interior since the beginning and during the course of this question, the ingress to and egress from the legation have been free, notwithstanding that persons who have entered and come out, and who inspired well-founded suspicion that they were or might be agents of illegal attempts on the part of the refugees, may have been arrested and conducted to the intendencia, being arrested, not in the house of the legation nor even near to it, but more frequently at a considerable distance from the street in which the United States legation is situated.

Never, according to the official reports of the intendencia, have there been inflicted, nor desired to be inflicted, vexations nor injury to the legation, nor to its chief, nor to its employés. And if any servant, due to his inferior position, or any unknown person that served it has been arrested and questioned, it was not because he was an employés of the legation, but because he was or seemed to be an instrument of the refugees who have done, or apparently have done, things which compromised him who had given them asylum and violated the law and order in Santiago.

This is a résumé of the reports of the intendente, an illustrious and intelligent person, who can not be easily deceived or mistaken and who would not assert what is untrue. His excellency the minister plenipotentiary has believed that that which the undersigned communicated to him in his last letter, to demonstrate that what he called a state of siege or blockade of the house of the legation, did not originate from any ill will or want of respect from the local authorities towards his person or dwelling, but from the actions of the same refugees, who provoked and made indispensable the presence and interference of the police in the adjoining streets.

His excellency the minister has considered that all this was given as a proof of a conspiracy and was the exposition of all that is known in this respect; but his excellency the minister, looking at things in that light, is laboring under a mistake, since the data and things noted by the undersigned are very distant from being all now in the hands of the local authorities, and his excellency the minister can readily conceive that it is not in this department of foreign affairs where the procedure and investigations of such subjects are decided upon and which the police of Santiago have been and are still following up.

The undersigned tenders his thanks for the offer of the letter of Señor Eleodoro Valdés C, of which he will make no use, nor will he refer to the explanations in reference to the use of the pass cards and the number of servants of the legation, but will proceed to other observations of his excellency the minister plenipotentiary, which enter entirely into the sphere of things subject to his consideration.

His excellency the minister, repeating his protests in reference to the orders given by the local authorities and the manner in which they have proceeded, insists that said orders have been given and executed against all persons entering and coming out of the legation. His excellency the minister can be assured the undersigned deplores all errors of this kind by the police agents that may have been committed against any person not comprehended in the number which they should watch and even arrest. According to the literal purport of those orders and the reports from the intendente, these orders extended but to persons against whom there were motives for suspicion, or against those whom they knew were instruments of intrigue for the refugees, who have not and can not form a formidable conspiracy, but who are inclined towards creating disturbances quite as illegal as impotent, and of which the intendente has proofs.

The significance, extent, and purpose of these orders and of their execution are looked upon quite differently by his excellency the minister from how they appear to the undersigned; perhaps not only from the difference of positions and the respective information, but also from the general estimation and criterion which have dictated the words of both.

On the part of the intendencia there has been no desire to inflict injury nor to occasion vexation to the legation and its personnel; and if any of the police agents have molested any person—even if it did happen—no offense or injury was intended, since the molestation was suspended and remedied as soon as it was possible to do so.

As regards the imprisonment of one of the servants of the legation and his retention there for some days, the reports from Señor Lira, the intendente, establish that those arrested and detained “were immediately put at liberty, with the exception of one Señor Camales, ex-official of the dictatorial army;” amongst the servants, or those who said they were, the intendente says there was found one Celestino Blanco, one Luis E. Estrella, and one Francisco de Toro Valenzuela, concerning whom abound motives sufficient not only to retain, but to imprison them.

Besides, a Mr. Luis Bansi, although not of the same category as those already mentioned, gave motives for being detained.

In possession of some of these there have been found data and instructions that justify these proceedings toward them by the police.

Is there, when he affirms to the contrary, a mistake on the part of the honorable minister plenipotentiary, or rather is there inexactness in the information received by him?

Is there a mistake on the part of the undersigned, and is there an inaccuracy in the reports received by him?

As the position of things is not being kept back, but is being developed and on the way to be cleared up and brought to an end independent of the will or opinion of his excellency the minister, as well of those of the undersigned, soon the results will answer these questions.

Concerning the safe-conducts asked for but not conceded, the undersigned in not granting them was far from wishing to manifest anything but deference toward the legation, and neither did he show any inequality of action between the different legations nor to the refugees within them. He but submits himself to the obligations and duties of the office which he occupies, and he should comply and make others comply with their legal dispositions, and more especially with those that refer to the administration of justice and proofs of courtesy.

Since the decree of the 14th of last September was published, the persons therein referred to have been subject to the judicial powers of the country, and the Supreme Junta and their ministers have therefore been deprived of the attributions to grant that which has been asked for and which Mr. Egan considers would be a friendly manifestation toward the United States legation.

A safe-conduct under present circumstances and in this particular case, which gives motives to these explanations, would be a grave irregularity and unjustifiable on the part of the Junta, or of its ministers, since those persons have been submitted to the hands of justice in the most solemn form. If, after having done this, the Junta should now give them a safe-conduct, they would be disavowing their own word, and would by so doing release them from the hands of justice and be interfering with the jurisdiction of the tribunals and the action already commenced against them.

The undersigned would be pleased, in addition, to give the assurance that if it were possible without disrespect to the law, the prestige of governmental action, and contrary to the interests of Chile, to give this proof of friendship toward the legation of North America, it should be done.

The undersigned does not consider it necessary to explain that the granting in certain cases of safe-conduct before the 4th of September, invoked or suggested, was not analogous to the present case, which will have to be decided judicially for the reasons herein enumerated.

I reiterate, etc.,

M. A. Matta.

[Inclosure 2 in No. 209.]

Mr. Egan to Señor Matta.

Legation of the United States,
Santiago, October 16, 1891.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the note of your excellency dated 9th instant, No. 463.

With reference to the protests made by this legation in my previous notes regarding the vexations inflicted by the systematic arrest of all persons who had during some days gone out from it, and the instructions which I stated I had received from my Government in reference thereto, your excellency has been good enough to express to me, in the communication to which I reply, as follows: “According to the report of the intendente of Santiago and according to the instructions given to him by the ministers of foreign relations and interior since the beginning and during the course of this question, the ingress to and egress from the legation have been free, notwithstanding that persons who have entered or come out and who inspired well-founded suspicions that they were, or might be, agents of illegal attempts on the part of the refugees, may have, been arrested and conducted to the intendencia; being arrested not in the house of the legation or even near to it.

“Never, according to the official reports of the intendencia, has there been inflicted, nor desired to he inflicted, vexations nor injury to the legation nor to its chiefs nor to its employés.”

And further on your excellency adds: “The undersigned, deploring all errors that may have been committed by any of the police agents against any person not included among those that should be watched and even arrested, can assure the minister that according to the literal tenor of those orders and to the reports of the intendente, same did not extend but to persons against whom there were grounds for suspicion.”

“On the part of the intendencia,” your excellency repeats, “there was no desire to inflict injury nor to occasion vexation to the legation and its personnel; and if any police agent molested any person, it was not in reality a vexation, because the annoyance was suspended and remedied as soon as it was possible to do so.”

I am in a position to affirm that the occurrences did not take place with the measure of discretion which the intendente of Santiago has reported to your excellency, and that it has been matter of public notoriety that during three days all persons were arrested, without distinction, who had gone out from this legation, including citizens of the United States who had come on business exclusively relating to the legation, and that matters were carried to such extremes that it was made difficult and almost impossible to communicate with or visit even the undersigned. Nevertheless I can not do less than recognize that through the serious representations which I found myself in the painful necessity of making to your excellency the situation was changed, and the legation is now reinvested with the guaranties which it should always possess, and which should never for one moment have been forgotten or neglected. I therefore consider it my duty to join with your excellency in “deploring all errors which may have been committed,” since, according to the reports received by your excellency, “never has there been inflicted, nor desired to be inflicted, vexations nor injury to the legation, nor to its chiefs, nor to its employés.”

Having regard to the gravity of the occurrences which have taken place and in view of the actual situation of the legation, I feel that I should not further treat this point, but remit to my Government all of the facts and leave to it the final resolution with regard to the Question.

In regard to the solicitation conveyed in one of my previous notes, in behalf of the political refugees in this legation for safe-conducts to leave the country, and which I urged as an undeniable proof that the refugees were far from occupying themselves in conspiracy, your excellency is good enough to express to me that in not conceding those safe-conducts there has been no intention to show want of consideration for this legation, that since was issued the decree of 14th September last all the persons therein mentioned are submitted to the judicial power, and that the Supreme Junta and its secretaries are therefore deprived of the power to make this manifestation of friendship to the legation of the United States.

Your Excellency adds: “The undersigned would be pleased, in addition, to give the assurance that if it were possible without disrespect to the law, to the prestige of the action of the Government, and to the interest of Chile, to give this proof of friendship to the legation of the United States, it should be given.”

Your excellency in previous notes has recognized, as your excellency was constrained to do in conformity with the international practices of Chile, the right of asylum, and that this legation had consequently complied with the duties of civilization and humanity in granting it, as it had done, to the political refugees who now find themselves under its protection.

This right having been recognized by your excellency, allow me, your excellency, to entertain the hope that the Government of your excellency, better understanding the facts, may be kind enough to concede those safe-conducts, not alone as a proof of friendship, which should be cordially appreciated by the Government of the United States, but as an act in conformity with the invariable policy of Chile, which, on this question it may be said, has become an international law in South America.

Your excellency will permit me to give a not considerable importance to the note passed by the ministerio of justicia to the promoter fiscal, under date of 14th September last, with the object of initiating judicial action, because it can not escape the excellent judgment of your excellency that neither a note, nor a decree of the Government, nor even a law of purely local effect, can destroy usages and practices which are international, and which nations establish and recognize in order to maintain and promote their reciprocal relations of friendship.

Your excellency can not fail to understand that the lively desire which all countries entertain for the preservation of peace and the respect for the practices which form an integral part of their international life could not conveniently be made to depend upon a note or decrees issued by any one government as a measure of internal administration in relation to questions between such government and its citizens.

The proposal to submit to the tribunals the persons enumerated in such note or decree does not require greater consideration, such process being effective against those who are properly in Chilean territory and within reach of the Chilean authorities, but not against those who may have gone out of the country or that may find themselves refugees in a legation or in ships of war of a foreign nation. In the latter cases they could not be considered to come within the judicial power, such political refugees being out of its jurisdiction.

With respect to the political refugees now in this legation, residing virtually within the territory of the United States, whose right of asylum your excellency has recognized, they can not be considered as submitted to the judicial power, and therefore, according to my judgment, the Government of your excellency is at the most perfect liberty to concede the safe-conducts solicited, and it can do so most logically in accordance with the international principles of Chile, which I take leave to bring to the recollection of your excellency.

In the archives of the ministerio under the charge of your excellency will be found the note of Señor Don Alvaro Covarrubias, in his character of minister of foreign relations of Chile, directed, under date of July 9, 1866, to Señor Don Marcial Martinez, minister plenipotentiary of Chile in Peru, giving instructions to regulate his action in a situation entirely similar to that which has existed and does exist in this country, as the result of a revolution which took place at that time in Peru, and the asylum conceded to various political refugees by Mr. Minister Martinez in his legation.

Señor Covarrubias indicated as a rule of action to the plenipotentiary in Lima, and as a basis of arrangement, the following:

• “First. That foreign legations can not grant asylum to common criminals, who should be delivered to the local authorities when they claim them.
• “Second. That the legation can concede asylum to political refugees for the time necessary to enable them to leave the country, with which purpose the diplomatic agent should put himself in accord with the minister of foreign affairs of the country to which he is accredited, in order to send the refugees to a foreign country under the necessary guaranties.”

According to those instructions, which are perfectly clear, the Chilean minister in Lima, as this legation has grounds to believe, adjusted his action, and the political refugees in his as well as in the other legations were embarked in Callao under the personal custody of the chiefs of the legations and in some cases simply accompanied by the foreign consuls.

This policy of the Chilean Government has been more fully corroborated in a still more recent date.

In the conferences held in Montevideo by the South American International Congress there was approved a treaty upon the international penal code, in the discussion of which took part the representatives sent by the Government of Chile, Señores Belisario Prats and Guillermo Matta.

The article No. 17 of this treaty, which was approved in the name of the Republic of Chile, and also by the representatives of the Argentine Republic, the Republic of Bolivia, the Republic of Paraguay, the Republic of Peru, and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, and which I copy from pages 305 and 306 of the appendix to “La memoria de ministerio de relaciones exteriores de la República Oriental de Uruguay,” is of the following tenor:

“Art. 17. A common criminal who has taken refuge in a legation shall be delivered by the chief of such legation to the local authorities upon the previous demand of the minister of foreign relations, when not done spontaneously.

“Said asylum shall be respected with regard to those pursued on political charges, but the chief of the legation is obliged to immediately bring the fact to the knowledge of the government of the state before which he is accredited, and said government can require that the refugee shall be placed outside of the national territory within the shortest possible period.

“The chief of the legation shall have the right to require in like manner the necessary guaranties to enable the refugee to go out from the national territory, the inviolability of his person being respected.

“The same principle shall be observed with respect to those who may have taken refuge in ships anchored in territorial waters.”

As your excellency may see, this article, approved in the name of the Republic of Chile by its representatives in the International Congress, in December, 1888, is in perfect harmony with the instructions forwarded by the honorable minister of foreign relations of Chile, Señor Covarrubias, in July, 1866, to Señor Martinez, envoy extraordinary of Chile in Peru, and both cases corroborate the affirmation which I have made to your excellency that such has been the international jurisprudence and the practice of Chile in the matter of asylum, and of the consequences necessarily and logically derived from such right, those consequences being fully recognized by the Government of Chile in the two cases cited.

The Government of the United States, which I have the honor to represent, expects from yonr excellency’s Government now the same consideration with respect to the political refugees in this legation, and, in compliance with the indicated method of proceeding approved by the representatives of the Government of your excellency, I have the honor to append a list of the refugees at present in this legation.

Your excellency can well understand that the right of asylum carries with it as a necessary consequence the right of safe-conduct, in order that the refugee may go out to a foreign country.

The political refugee finds himself virtually in the territory of the nation whose legation or ship affords him asylum, and no consideration whatsoever of internal private right should prevent him from being transported to a foreign country, as has been done, for example, in the case of the refugees in the ships of war of my own nation and of other nations anchored in the harbor of Valparaiso.

Every right, whether civil or international, when recognized and respected, must receive a national interpretation and a practical method of application.

It should be absurd to consider that the right of asylum, which is accepted more especially in South America, with its logical consequences, should be only an idle name, an expression without a meaning, a mockery for the diplomatic, agent who grants it in the name of his country, and a snare for the refugee who avails of it relying on the faith of the nation by the conversion of the legation into a permanent prison.

I am sure that your excellency will coincide with me in giving to the right of asylum the interpretation which the Government of Chile has always considered itself bound to give to it.

The refusal of your excellency to concede those safe-conducts should be a matter of regret to my Government, because it could only be interpreted as a serious grievance which the Government desired to impose upon this legation, and particularly as, to do so, it should be necessary that your excellency would forget the international practice of Chile and the agreements entered into in its name.

In a very recent time safe-conducts have been conceded by the Government to refugees who were in this and other legations, and in other places in the city, under conditions much more difficult for the Government which granted them, while the armed struggle was yet undecided, and when the refugees, favored with such safe-conducts, might be able to bring powerful aid to the cause of their party.

In granting those safe-conducts, however, the Government did but due honor to the principles which have directed the international practice of Chile.

For my part, I have no doubt that your excellency will appreciate to their fullest value those important considerations, and I natter myself with the belief that my Government will receive, on the part of the Government of your excellency, a new proof of the spirit of harmony and cordiality which should govern the relations of the two countries.

Renewing to your excellency, etc.,

Patrick Egan.

List of the refugees referred to in the foregoing letter: Señor I. Francisco Gana, Señor Adolfo Ibañez, Señor Juan E. Mackenna, Señor Guillermo Mackenna, Señor José Miguel Valdés Carrera, Señor Ricardo Cruzat, Señor Ricardo Vicuña, Señor Mardal Pinto Aguero, Señor Guillermo Pinto Aguero, Sehor Acario Cotapos, Señor Memorino Cotapos, Señor Rafael Casanova Zenteno, Señor Alfredo Ovalle, Señor Hermojines Camus.

[Inclosure 3 in No. 209.]

Decree of Governmental Junta of September 14, 1891.

Santiago, September 14, 1891.

Decrees and orders of the Governmental Junta; officers of the Dictatorship; ministry of justice and public instruction.

Whereas public justice requires that all persons who have taken part in the acts of the Dictator Balmaceda since the 1st day of January last be immediately held responsible, not only in order that the injury done to the country may be repaired, but also that the offenders may be punished;

Whereas among those persons are Don José Manuel Balmaceda, ex-President of the Republic, the ministers and counselors of state, the members of the bodies which styled themselves the National Congress, and the municipalities, the intendentes of the provinces, and the governors of the departments, the officers of the exchequer, the judicial functionaries who filled their offices in virtue of appointments made by the dictator, and others whose acts have rendered them liable to prosecution;

Whereas, in order that judicial action and the presentation of proof may be expedited, and that the efficiency of the action may not be divided, it is indispensable that these cases be tried at Santiago, since this city was the seat of the dictatorship, and in it were committed or originated the acts whose perpetrators are now to be prosecuted; and

Whereas the action that may be taken by the judicial authorities is no bar to the exercise of the powers which the constitution grants to Congress to indict and try the officers designated by the constitution,

The Governmental Junta decrees:

• Art. 1. The public prosecutors of Santiago shall, with as little delay as possible, institute such action as is sanctioned by law against the persons above mentioned.
• Art. 2. Messrs. Juan Nepomuceno Parga, José Francisco Fabres, Juan de Dios Vergara Salvá, Luis Barros Borgoño, and Abel Saavedra, attorneys at law, are hereby designated to assist the public prosecutors in the discharge of the duties hereby assigned them.

Let it be noted, communicated, and published.

• Montt.
• Isidoro Errázuriz.