No. 118.
Mr. Martinez to Mr. Blaine.

[Translation.]

The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Chili has the honor to present his respects to his excellency the Secretary of State, and to inclose herewith, pursuant to the request his excellency was pleased to make, a copy of the confidential dispatch of the minister for foreign affairs of Chili, dated the 12th of September last.

[Inclosure.—Translation.]

Mr. Valderrama to Mr. Martinez.

Confidential.]

By dispatches which were in due season addressed to you by Don Joaquin Godoy from Lima you will have been informed of the very uncircumspect conduct of the minister of the United States recently accredited to the provisional government of Señor Garcia Calderon.

From the time of his arrival at Lima Mr. Hurlbut has omitted no signs of decided partiality in favor of Peru, giving it to be understood that the Government of the United States would resist any arrangement which Chili might endeavor to effect with that republic, and which might involve the cession of any part of its territory.

These ideas, which obtained a footing among the public men of Peru, acquired still greater persistence after the address delivered by the American minister on the public occasion of presenting his credentials to the provisional President. From that moment Mr. Garcia Calderon, the members of his cabinet, and all persons who had any influence whatever upon the public opinion, deemed themselves encouraged by the words and demonstrations of the representative of the United States, believing that they saw therein the expression of the policy which the Cabinet at Washington proposed to adopt.

Our plenipotentiary, Mr. Godoy, carefully observed the reaction which was brought about in the Peruvian mind by the conduct of Mr. Hurlbut. To the negotiations which have been initiated in a conciliatory and accommodating spirit before the arrival of the American minister, there succeeded after his arrival a sudden and unlooked-for change, the explanation of which can only be attributed to the influence, directly or indirectly, produced by the attitude of the representative of the United States. In this state of affairs our plenipotentiary deemed it proper to suspend the negotiations already set on foot, and went to Chili to confer with my government.

Being desirous of inquiring if the conduct of Mr. Hurlbut responded to a political plan of his government, I held a conference with Mr. Kilpatrick, who expressed himself dissatisfied with the manner in which his colleague in Lima had begun his diplomatic mission. Mr. Kilpatrick did not hesitate to affirm that Mr. Hurlbut did not faithfully represent the policy of abstention and neutrality of his government. In order to relieve my government of all unfounded apprehension in this respect, he made me acquainted with the dispatch which contained his own instructions, adding that the instructions given his colleague at Lima, who was appointed at the same time, could not but be in entire conformity with his own.

In those instructions, and in the part thereof which refers to the war between Chili, [Page 163] Peru, and Bolivia, the Government of the United States shows itself in entire conformity with its previous policy. It exhibits the intention of not interfering in the solution of the war, except in the case of its good offices being solicited by all the belligerents. As respects the cession of a part of the Peruvian territory, the Government of the United States expresses no surprise whatever that such should appear among the conditions of peace. It observes, in passing, that it would be expedient if the territorial cession should not comprise cities whose inhabitants are exclusively Peruvians, and should not desire to choose the citizenship of our country. But this last appears rather a friendly reflection than as an exigency of American policy.

Meanwhile it is not possible to ignore the fact that the presence of Mr. Hurlbut in Lima has been in a high degree prejudicial to the conclusion of arrangements for peace. I have ground to believe that he continues to place at the service of the purposes of the provisional government all the influence which can be given by the representative character he holds.

As late as yesterday I learned, in a confidential way, but one entirely trustworthy, that he has sent a telegram to Mr. Kilpatrick, in Santiago, begging him to forward it to his colleague at Buenos Ayres. In this telegram Mr. Hurlbut seconded, doubtless, the plans of Mr. Garcia Calderon, and asks his colleague in Buenos Ayres that he should represent to the Argentine cabinet the urgent necessity of accrediting, without loss of time, a representative at Lima. There are no reasons to think that the government of Señor Garcia Calderon would welcome the presence of an Argentine minister in Peru, in order to seek therefrom mild or effective aid against us.

These considerations, to which you will give all the importance which they themselves possess, induce me to charge you to endeavor to see the Secretary of State, in order to let him see, in a confidential and delicate way, the manner in which Mr. Hurlbut is interpreting his policy in Peru. You will endeavor, also, with the greatest discretion, to obtain from the American Government some act or declaration which will tend to destroy the bad impression caused by the conduct of their representative in Lima, to avoid in future that he shall continue to create difficulties foreign to his official character, and contrary to the ever friendly and loyal policy of the United States.

May God guard you.

MELQUIADES VALDERRAMA.

Señor Don Marcial Martinez, &c., &c., &c.