Mr. Blaine to Mr. Pacheco .
Washington , February 28, 1891 .
Sir: Mr. Kimberly’s dispatch No. 238, of the 24th ultimo, has been received. He therein reports the steps taken by him in execution of the Department’s instruction No. 7, of December 22, 1890, in relation to the arms taken from the Pacific Mail steamship Colima in the port of San José in July of last year and subsequently put on board the steamship San Bias of the same line.
It seems that in an interview with the Guatemalan minister for foreign affairs held on January 24, 1891, the matter was discussed at some length. The minister admitted that his Government was at fault in regard to the unceremonious manner in which the arms were put on board the San Bias, but alleged that the blame lay not with the Guatemalan authorities, but with Mr. Mizner, who, he asserted, had failed to make with Col. Toriello, the military commandant of San José, the arrangements for the ceremonial return of the arms, which the minister understood was to be effected. Assuring Mr. Kimberly of his sincere desire that these formalities should take place, the minister asked him to suggest what action should be taken under the circumstances.
Mr. Kimberly requested “that the formalities already mentioned and agreed upon should be forthcoming immediately,” and fixed Monday, the 20th of January, for a conference at the legation between him and Col. Toriello regarding the time and manner in which the formalities should take place.
[Page 60]This conference with Col. Toriello, so arranged for the 24th, is not reported in Mr. Kimberly’s dispatch, which is dated January 22, but it would seem to have been held before that dispatch was mailed, and the conclusions reached would seem to have been embodied in a letter dated January 28, addressed by Mr. Kimberly to Capt. Johnston, commanding the Pacific Mail steamship City of New York, of which a copy is annexed to Mr. Kimberly’s dispatch.
It reads as follows:
Guatemala, January 28, 1891.
Capt. Frank H.
Johnston,
Commanding Pacific Mail
Steamship City of New York,
San José
Guatemala:
Sir: I take pleasure in informing you that on to-morrow, Thursday, the 29th day of January, in the afternoon, Col. Toriello, the commandant of the port of San José, will, in full-dress uniform, including his sword, proceed to visit your ship, and, seeking you, will then and there make such explanations and offer such apology as may in your judgment be satisfactory to you and most meet to the honor of our flag. This action is taken as the result of an interview I had with the minister of foreign affairs of this Republic, and in expiation of the manner in which the arms and ammunition were removed by this commandant from the Pacific Mail steamship Colima last July, and the very unceremonious way in which they were returned to the steamer San Bias during the period you were in command.
You will extend to the commandant during these formalities such courtesy as the occasion calls for.
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
Samuel Kimberly,
United States Chargé d’Affaires ad
interim.
The statements of this letter suggest that Mr. Kimberly may not have entirely apprehended the scope and purport of my instruction No. 7, of December 22, 1890. The grounds for complaint therein were the wrongful seizure of the arms and the threats against and indignity shown to an American ship, while the unceremonious character of the only act done by the Guatamalan Government in disavowal was an incident only. Keeping these separately in view, I concluded my instruction thus:
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.
While thus presenting to the Guatemalan Government the desire and expectation of the Government of the United States that satisfactory apology or reparation for the whole wrongdoing would be made, I courteously retrained from formulating a demand, but left it to that Government to tender adequate redress of its own volition. If so tendered, its sufficiency would remain to be determined in a spirit of frankness and friendship.
Mr. Kimberly, however, concentrating his attention, not on the wrongful seizure of the arms—on which our just complaint rests—but on the comparatively trivial incident of the discourtesy in returning them which was shown to the United States Government by a subordinate officer of the Guatemalan Government, responded to the minister’s request that he intimate the expected measure of reparation in the case by suggesting the fulfillment at this late day of the formalities which, it was understood, should have attended the replacement of the arms on one of the company’s steamers; and this notwithstanding that the arms had long passed out of Guatemalan control, and neither the vessel from which they were seized nor that upon which they were placed was in a [Page 61] Guatemalan port. A belated ceremony was arranged to take place upon another vessel of the Pacific Mail Company, apparently for no other reason than that it was commanded by the same individual who was formerly master of the San Bias at the time the Colima’s arms were put on board. Furthermore, the formality is, in terms, an apology of the local military commandant to the captain of the City of New York, and this captain is made by Mr. Kimberly the sole judge of the sufficiency of such apology.
In this Mr. Kimberly has perpetuated Mr. Mizner’s error of regarding the Colima arms seizure as a question between the Guatemalan Government and a common carrier doing business in Guatemalan waters under a contract with that Government.
The apology and reparation, so far as they go, are effected solely with the steamship company. The expectation that this Government will receive from that of Guatemala some satisfactory apology or reparation for the indignity offered to an American ship by the seizure of the arms is as yet unrealized.
So far as concerns the minor incident of Col. Toriello’s discourteous action in the return of the arms, his apology, thus indirectly tendered by him in person, may be accepted as amply disposing of that branch of the matter, because sanctioned by the Government of Guatemala, which has made its acquiescence therein known to the acting diplomatic agent of the United States. It may therefore disappear from consideration.
It is learned, through a personal letter from Mr. Kimberly, that the original of my instruction of December 22 has, unfortunately, been lost or stolen. A duplicate thereof is herewith inclosed for your necessary information and to complete your files.
In the assumption that Mr. Kimberly may have duly executed his instructions by reading my No. 7 to the minister for foreign affairs and leaving with him a copy of it, should he have so desired, the response of the Guatemalan Government is awaited in order that the status of the main question pending between the two Governments may be intelligently defined. I the instruction has not been so read and left in copy, you will remedy the omission.
It is not reasonable to suppose, as Mr. Kimberly seems to have done, that Col. Toriello’s expression of regret and apology to Capt. Johnston, of the merchant steamer City of New York, can of itself constitute, so far as the Government of the United States is concerned, an “expiation of the manner in which the arms and ammunition were removed by this commandant from the Pacific Mail steamer Colima last July.”
You will duly report such steps as you may take to remove any misapprehension which you may find to have grown out of Mr. Kimberly’s singular action in this matter.
I am, etc.,