325.1121 Bethune, Larry K./13: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Chile ( Culbertson )
15. Your 24, March 26, 6 p.m.17 Your despatch 809 of March 19, not yet received. Department’s instruction 604 of October 21, 1925,18 and Department’s cable No. 10 of March 19, 1 p.m. did not take the position which Spanish text of your note No. 586 of March 19, to the Foreign Office19 and given to the Department by the Chilean Embassy, implies, namely, that American citizens in Chile are not subject to Chilean laws in so far as incommunicado is concerned. In order to close this phase of the incident the Department desires you to address a note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs supplementing your No. 586 as follows:
“In order to remove any misunderstanding on the part of Your Excellency regarding the purport of my note No. 586 of March 19, I desire to say that of course it was not its intention to infer even by implication that American citizens in Chile are not subject to Chilean laws. The system of incommunicado is not recognized in American jurisprudence where the right of habeas corpus is considered as the foundation of American political liberties. Therefore when an American citizen is held incommunicado in a foreign country it is the fixed policy of the Government of the United States to request in each case that his diplomatic and/or consular representatives and his lawyer be permitted to see him in order that proper steps may be taken to safeguard his interests and prepare for his defense. It was this that I desired to set forth in my note of the 19th instant and I trust that this explanation will remove any misconception which your Government may have had in the premises.”20
Make no comment or statement to the press even informally regarding this matter. Chilean Government alleges Lima and Buenos Aires press reports are due to information given United and Associated Press correspondents by the Embassy.