825.00/368: Telegram

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

[Paraphrase]

5. Embassy’s telegram number 12 dated January 26, 1 a.m., last paragraph. It is the feeling of the Department that the presence of American war vessels in Chilean ports would cause a most unfavorable impression. The Department would only consent to send them if American lives were in actual danger. The Department has no desire to interfere in any way with the Chileans in their efforts to work out their present difficulties by themselves. Having received no evidence from you to the contrary the Department does not anticipate that American citizens will be molested during the present troubles. If American war vessels were to be sent nearer to Chile than they are now at their present station in the Panama Canal they would have to be sent to Peruvian ports. This is considered inadvisable in view of the present relations between Chile and Peru.

Hughes