723.2515/597: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile (Shea) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 28—2:50 a.m.]
490 [49]. I have been invited informally by Huneeus, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, on this, his first day in office, to confer with him in regard to the present situation. He deplored the bad feeling that the note had aroused in Chile, but stated that the resentment shown by the press was not shared by the Government. The Government, he declared, accepted the note in the same spirit in which it had received the message of President Wilson, Department’s December 4, 1918, 6 p.m.91 He is entirely willing, he said, to do anything in his power to correct the prevalent erroneous impression, and handed me a copy of Mathieu’s cable in which the Ambassador gives a résumé of his conversation with Mr. Polk; it contains a very fair statement of the Department’s attitude. Huneeus then offered to hand me an informal statement in writing, Monday afternoon at 5:30, to which he requested me to reply, both communications to be given to the press. I request your immediate instructions. Since my arrival in Chile the new Minister and I have enjoyed a very agreeable acquaintance.