Senhor Mendonça to Mr. Uhl.
Washington , June 22, 1894 . (Received June 22.)
Sir: Referring to my interviews with yourself on the 18th and 21st instants, in the first of which you manifested the desire to know if the Brazilian consul at Lisbon was exercising any diplomatic functions as chargé d’affaires, ad interim, during the suspension of the diplomatic relations between Brazil and Portugal, as well as if, in case of necessity of protection to Brazilian citizens in Portugal or its dependencies, the requisition for such protection should be made directly by the party needing the protection or through the said Brazilian consul at Lisbon, I had the honor to inform you in our interview of yesterday that I had cabled to my Government and had received from the minister of foreign [Page 72] relations at Rio de Janerio, under date of the 20th instant, the answer that the Brazilian consul at Lisbon had no diplomatic character, and that he had been instructed by cable not to hold correspondence with the Portuguese Government on diplomatic matters, and that the requisition for protection could be made, at the choice of the American minister, either directly or through the said consul for the purpose of identification of the person or persons applying for protection.
In the same mssage of the 20th the minister of foreign relations says that he does not know as yet if the Portuguese Government had given its consent to he protection of Brazilian subjects by the minister of the United States at Lisbon, and although I had the honor to be informed by you in the two interviews referred to in this note that the answer of your diplomatic agent in Lisbon, that he should follow the instructions of the State Department, implied that the communication of the subject to the Portuguese Government had been made and its consent obtained, I beg you the favor of letting me know the answer of the Portuguese Government when such answer is received by the State Department in order to inform my Government.
Accept, sir, etc.,