Mr. Barrett to Mr. Hay.

No. 41.]

Sir: Referring to the Department’s telegrams and those from this legation, I have the honor to advise you of the arrest and detention of Herman E. Haass (alias Frank Edwards), who defaulted from the Corn Exchange National Bank of Chicago with $20,000 gold.

Immediately upon receipt of the Department’s telegram of the 12th instant the Panama authorities were notified, and as a result of their efficient action Haass was captured at the Astor House, Colon, on the 14th. He had sent from there a note to the Hotel Central, Panama, with the request that letters arriving for him should be forwarded to the former place.

The prisoner was brought to Panama with his effects, protesting violently that he had never been in Chicago, that he was not the man wanted, but “Frank Edwards,” and that the whole affair was a case of mistaken identity.

On the morning of the 15th he was visited by Mr. Lee, the secretary of this legation, who entered the prisoner’s cell abruptly and addressed the man as Haass, and asked how long it was since he had left Chicago. The prisoner, taken unawares, faltered and replied that it had been some months since he had left that city, and he asked Mr. Lee how he knew that his (the prisoner’s) name was Haass. Then the defaulter tried to retract what he had said and broke down, but identification had been established and was afterwards thoroughly proven when his papers were examined.

In the meantime, however, another man, A. W. Rhude, about to sail for Central American ports, and whose appearance was somewhat similar to the Department’s cabled description, was kept under surveillance but not under arrest, at my request, by the Panama police. He sails for his destination to-morrow, and I have settled with him for his hotel bill, which amounts to $30 silver ($14.28 gold), for which I inclose receipt in duplicate, with the request that the Department collect the same from the responsible parties so that I may reimburse myself.

I have communicated the Department’s thanks to the Panama authorities, and through them to Chief Arango for his able and successful action which resulted in the capture of Haass, who will be delivered to the officer about to arrive with formal papers.

I have, etc.,

John Barrett.