Mr. Blaine to Mr. Kimberly.
Washington , December 29, 1890 .
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Mizner’s No. 200, of November 5 last, relative to the damage done in July last to the property of the consulate of the United States at San Salvador, and to the private property of the consul, Mr. Henry R. Myers, and requesting instructions as to the reparation to be asked therefor. As you have already been informed, Mr. Myers also complained, in connection with the above incident, that he was prevented by the Salvadorian authorities [Page 21] from communicating either with his Government directly or with Mr. Mizner, and that he was refused a pass to leave the country except on condition that his exequatur should at the same time be withdrawn. The treaty of 1870 is plain with respect to the right of the Government of San Salvador to withdraw Mr. Myers’s exequatur upon reasonable grounds, but to refuse to give him a pass to leave the country except on that condition, while making no objection to his continuing to exercise his consular functions if he would remain, was a species of duress, the gravity of which is increased by the fact that his avowed purpose in temporarily leaving was to communicate with his Government. It would seem to have been an attempt to do indirectly what Mr. Myers charges was also done directly, namely, to prevent his communicating with his superiors. These two matters are important factors in this unfortunate affair, and so inseparably connected with the question of what is due to this Government and to Mr. Myers personally, that the Department is constrained to hold the matter of damage in abeyance until the receipt of further information from you.
Mr. Mizner, in his No. 187, of October 18 last, reported that the cable operator at La Libertad in July and August last was now in Panama, and that he had sent to him for a statement of the control exercised over his office by the authorities of San Salvador during the time mentioned. Also, in his No. 188, of the same date, he says:
I will by the next mail communicate with the Provisional Government of San Salvador on the subject of Consul Myers being refused a pass to leave the country, and will promptly report the results.
The Department will therefore await your further advice upon these two points, on receipt of which it will again instruct you in the premises.
I am, etc.,