Mr. Tillman to Mr.
Olney.
Legation of the United States,
Quito, March 12, 1896.
(Received April 2.)
No. 68.]Sir: I have the honor, and it is my duty, to
report that on the 9th of this month I received a note from the minister
of foreign affairs asking permission to pass through a large door on the
street, by which the rooms of this legation are entered, for the purpose
of entering rooms in the rear of the legation, in order to make arrest
of Colonel Hidalgo and to search for arms.
As the rooms of the legation were entirely above and separate from the
rooms which are freely entered by the public, I made no objection.
Colonel Hidalgo, finding that he could not escape, requested me to
tender his surrender to the two officers who came into the court below,
which I did, and secured for him a promise of kind treatment and a fair
trial. The copies of the notes, with translation of that of the minister
of foreign affairs, are herewith inclosed (Nos. 1, 2, and 3).
I find also in a morning paper of this day a similar correspondence on
the same subject between a minister of the former government and myself
of date August 14 and 15, 1895. This last correspondence has not been
forwarded to you for the reason that in the collapse of the former
government and the excitement incident to it and the removal of the
legation rooms the letter of the minister to me had been misplaced
before it was registered. The publications were made by the government
here, that of the 9th of this month in the Official Register and that of
the 14th and 15th of August in the Scyri of to-day. I inclose copies of
the latter, with translations (inclosures 4, 5, and 6), and also an
editorial from the Scyri (inclosures 7 and 8).
One of the greatest difficulties which a foreign minister has to meet
here in times like those I have had grows out of the mistaken notion
that legations are “cities of refuge,” where every class of lawbreakers
are safe from arrest. It were better, of course, that diplomatic and
consular officers should have rooms entirely separate from all others,
but this is almost impossible without great expense, the houses being
very large and costly or small and unsuitable, and often unclean.
I have, etc.,
[Page 111]
[Inclosure 1 in No.
68—Translation.]
Mr. Montalvo to
Mr. Tillman.
Office of Minister Foreign Relations,
Quito, March 9, 1896.
Mr. Minister: The Government has
information that in the house yon occupy, in the lower part, there
is concealed the Colonel Antonio Hidalgo. This subject is one of the
principal conspirators against the Government, and on whom its
enemies count to execute their premeditated plans.
The Government, therefore, finds itself under the necessity of
putting this individual in security, but desires permission of the
minister to enter the house (or building) to the end of possessing
itself of that man and to make a search for the arms which, it is
said, exist there.
Very sorry am I, Mr. Minister, to find myself obliged, on account of
the duty of the preservation of the Government, to trouble your
excellency, but I hope your excellency will be pleased to justify
this proceeding and to accede to so equitable a request.
I avail, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 68.]
Mr. Tillman to
Mr. Montalvo.
Legation of the United States,
Quito, March 9, 1896.
Sir: Your polite note of this date has been
received, and in reply will state that I have no control over the
rear rooms of the building which I occupy and the entrance to
them.
I am not fully informed who occupies them, but the persons seem to be
friends and servants of the owners of the house.
My apartments are only occupied by ray diplomatic household. As the
rear rooms can only be reached through the court by which my own
rooms are entered, I can make no objection to an orderly entrance by
officials of the Government of Ecuador. My Government, in accordance
with the rules of international law, has instructed all its
diplomatic agents not to permit the rooms of their legations to be
used as asylums for the violators of law or conspirators against the
peace and order of the country.
It says:
While indisposed to deny temporary shelter to any person
whose life may be threatened by mob violence, it deems it
proper to instruct its agents it will not approve of
attempts to knowingly harbor offenders against the laws from
the pursuit of the legitimate agents of justice.
This provision of the law of nations I have read and related to many
persons since the supremacy of the present Government, and during
the supremacy of the one which was overthrown in September last.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 3 in No.
68.—Translation.]
Mr. Ribadeneira
to Mr. Tillman.
Mr. Minister: The Government has knowledge
that in the house in which you live there are meetings of
conspirators against constitutional
[Page 112]
order, and though you are not the owner of
said house, it pleases me to ask your consent to enter said house to
capture said persons, who falsely believe that they are protected by
the flag of the United States to mature their plans of sedition.
Accept, your excellency, this courteous deference to your legation,
although as respects the owner of the house it would be sufficient
to issue a decree for entrance and proceed to the capture.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 4 in No. 68.]
Mr. Tillman to
Mr. Ribadeneira.
Legation of the United States, August 15, 1895.
Señor Ministro: Your polite note of the
14th instant in which you state that your Government has knowledge
that there are being held meetings of conspirators against
constitutional order in the building occupied by me, and asking
permission for authority to enter said building was received at too
late an hour yesterday for me to reply in writing.
The rooms of the legation of the United States are all of the upper
rooms of the building to which you refer. Under the well-known rules
of the law of nations, as you are well informed, these quarters can
not be searched under process of local laws or local authorities. My
statement that these rooms are only used by my diplomatic household
must be, and no doubt will be, conclusive to you. The remainder of
the house (the lower rooms), the large garden and grounds, and
stable form no part of this legation, and I only ask that in case of
a search in these for the supposed conspirators you will send an
intelligent and prudent official. I think it proper to say that some
weeks ago I informed my native servants that the flag of this
legation could not be used to protect Ecuadorians seeking to avoid
military duty, and later I informed friends of wealthy people who
had fallen under suspicion of your Government that they could not be
received or concealed in this legation. So strange appeared these
statements, I felt it necessary to show these parties the
instructions of my Government and the rules of the law of
nations.
My Government sanctions the use of its legations as an asylum against
mob violence, to noncombatants in time of actual conflict, and to
the officials of an overthrown administration, who are not
conspiring against the new order and the actual authorities. These
rules will be applied with impartial rigor and vigor.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 5 in No. 68.—From the Scyri,
Quito.—Translation.]
The American minister and Colonel
Hidalgo.
It may be interesting to the learned conspirators who are criticizing
the American minister for surrendering Colonel Hidalgo to know, in
the first place, that he did not surrender Colonel Hidalgo; in the
second place that Colonel Hidalgo was not concealed in the rooms of
the United States legation; and that the American minister will not
do anything which he has to conceal either from his own Government
or the Government of Ecuador. He did not conceal the presence in his
house of General Serasti and Julio Salazar from the last of August
to the first of September passed.
Colonel Hidalgo was in rooms below and in the rear of the rooms of
the United States legation when the minister rented his present
apartments. To these rooms in the rear the owners of the building
and their friends and servants and arrieros had access by means of
the large door on the street, passing under the rooms of the
legation.
[Page 113]
The Government of Ecuador asked permission to pass through this door
to the rooms in the rear, and the American minister would have been
less courteous to the Government of Ecuador than to arrieros and
servants if he had refused the request.
He did not know for two months after he took the house that Colonel
Hidalgo was in it, while perhaps a dozen servants and half, the city
knew where he was concealed.
It may be most interesting of all to the learned international
lawyers to know that in August last Señor Apericio Ribadeneira (the
head of the old Government) asserted his right to make a search of
the Juana Narranjo premises and asked permission of the American
minister to look for Señor Peñaherrera and others who were supposed
to be concealed in the premises in part occupied by the American
minister, and this petition of Ribadeneira was not denied by the
minister. Read this interesting correspondence which we publish.
The American minister knows the laws and will obey them whether the
Government of Ecuador is clerical, liberal, or radical. Under
international laws the legations of all countries are regarded as
asylums for persons pursued by mob violence, whether the applicant
is shoemaker or cavalier (zapatero or caballero), but not for
conspirators against the actual government or violators of the laws
of the country when they may be demanded by regular proceedings from
the proper officials.
