Mr. Blaine to Mr. Porter.
Washington, May 4, 1891.
A series of statements addressed to the Marquis Imperiali by the Marquis Rudini was telegraphed from Rome yesterday and was published by the Associated Press of the United States to-day. The only part of the Marquis Rudini’s communication which this Government desires to notice is the one here quoted, namely:
I have now before me a note addressed to you by Secretary Blaine April 14. Its perusal produces a most painful impression upon me. I will not stop to lay stress upon the lack of conformity with diplomatic usages displayed in making use, as Mr. Blaine did not hesitate to do, of a portion of a telegram of mine communicated to him in strict confidence, in order to get rid of a question clearly defined in our official documents, which alone possess a diplomatic value.
The telegram of March 24, concerning whose public use the Marquis Rudini complains, is the following, which was quoted in full in my note of April 14 to Marquis Imperiali, chargé of Italy at this capital:
[Telegram.]
Rome, March 24, 1891.
Italian
Minister,
Washington:
Our requests to the Federal Government are very simple. Some Italian subjects, acquitted by the American magistrates, have been murdered in prison while under the immediate protection of the authorities. Our right, therefore, to demand and obtain the punishment of the murderers and an indemnity for the victims is unquestionable. I wish to add that the public opinion in Italy is justly impatient, and if concrete provisions were not at once taken I should find myself in the painful necessity of showing openly our dissatisfaction by recalling the minister of His Majesty from a country where he is unable to obtain justice.
Rudini.
The intimation of the Marquis Rudini that the telegram in question was delivered in strict confidence is a total error. As the telegram ex-pressed the demand of the Italian Government, it was impossible that Marquis Rudini could transmit it in strict confidence. As I have already stated, it was communicated to me in person by Baron Fava, written in English in his own handwriting, without a suggestion of privacy, and the telegram itself has not a single mark upon it denoting a confidential character. I have caused a number of copies of the telegram to be forwarded to you to-day in facsimile. The usual mark for italic printing was used by me under four lines, and they appear in the copies. You will use the facsimiles in such manner as will most effectually prove the error into which the Marquis Rudini has fallen.