723.2515/1589: Telegram

The Ambassador in Chile (Collier) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

77. Last week rumors reached me that more than a hundred natives of Tacna were detained prisoners here in Santiago in various barracks. I investigated immediately and requested information from Minister for Foreign Affairs. He ordered inquiry and several days later informed me that 120 men who had refused to report for military service had been compelled to report and had been sent to various regiments here to render the required service; that they were not detained, except that no soldier can leave his regiment without being guilty of desertion, and that a list of these men would be given Pershing through the Chilean Commissioner and to you through Mathieu; they would be returned to Tacna for the plebiscite whenever Pershing desires. Shall I communicate this information to Pershing? Minister for Foreign Affairs asserted that he and President Alessandri knew nothing of matter and that the military authorities look upon it as a customary application of the rules of military discipline; nevertheless, I doubt that without my intervention these men would have been allowed to return to the provinces to vote.

Collier