No. 36.
Mr. Logan
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Santiago, November 10, 1882.
(Received December 16.)
No. 22.]
Sir: Referring to that portion of my instructions
desiring me to inquire into the circumstances of the abstraction of Minister
Adams’s official correspondence, I inclose under cover of this dispatch,
marked No. 1, the translation of a note from the minister of foreign
relations of Chili, directed to myself, which latter incloses an official
copy of the sentence of the court upon the culprit Fariña. This document is
also inclosed herein and marked No. 2.
You will doubtless perceive a singular anachronism in the proceedings. The
sentence of the court bears the date of July 24 last, and states that
Farina’s imprisonment began on the 29th of March. The prisoner was sentenced
to sixty-one days of solitary confinement, which period would terminate on
the 29th of May following. From this it would appear that he had already
been apprehended, had served sixty-one days, and had been discharged from
custody before his trial began at all.
* * * * * * *
As our neighbors have complied with their duty in form, * * * and as no good
can result from pressing the matter, I recommend that no further action be
taken in the premises. I shall hold the case open as it now stands, however,
with the view of executing any new instructions you may desire to give
me.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
22.—Translation.]
Señor Aldunate to
Mr. Logan.
Santiago, November 8,
1882.
Sir: In answer to the note of your excellency,
dated the 27th of October ultimo, in which your excellency signifies the
desire to know the facts connected with the trial and punishment of the
individual guilty of intercepting the correspondence of General Adams,
United States minister in Bolivia, I have the honor to inclose an
official copy of the sentence pronounced in the case by the judge of
crime in this city. In this your excellency will find a clear but
succinct exposition of the circumstances giving origin to the process,
the reasons which caused the dismissal of other charges which at the
beginning it was thought the prisoner was liable to, and, finally, the
condemnation and punishment of the delinquent.
In the confidence that with the inclosure of the accompanying document I
have complied with the desires of your excellency in the above mentioned
communication,
I reiterate, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No.
22.—Translation.]
Sentence of the court.
This process is founded in a diplomatic claim directed to the Government
of Chili by Mr. W. Henry Trescot, special envoy extraordinary of the
United States of North America, for the abstraction and opening of the
correspondence directed by the Cabinet of Washington to Mr. Adams,
minister resident at La Paz. In fact, four packets
[Page 82]
thus directed had arrived in the hands of
Señor Benjamin Vicuña MacKenna, which the latter delivered to General
Foote, United States consul, this being the origin of the claim.
The minister of foreign relations of Chili at once made active efforts,
though without result, to discover the office where the act had been
committed, until the receipt by the said minister of the letter in copy,
dated the 19th, in which Don José’ Gregorio Fariña Bravo, employé of the
custom-house and post-office of Cobija, announced himself as the author
of the abstraction of the four referred-to packets. Being put in prison,
the said Fariña Bravo confessed to have taken them, in order to send
them to Señor Vicuña MacKenna, in which be said that the latter might
become acquainted with their contents if he thought it convenient; and
he added that he sent them with the belief that the correspondence might
have some interest for the cause of Chili; that he had sent them himself
without the counsel or co-operation of any other person, and that this
is the only act of the kind that he has done during his service as an
employé. During the course of this process the chief of the post-office
in Cobija, Don Manuel Varas Arriagada, and another employé of the
office, Don Vicente Gutierrez, were placed in prison upon suspicion of
culpability in unduly retaining correspondence arriving at that port
destined to La Paz, but having proven themselves guiltless, they were
discharged for the offense of June 2 last.
In regard to the prisoner, considering first that the prisoner, Fariña
Bravo, confesses to have abstracted the four packets of correspondence
alluded to from the post-office in which he was serving as employé,
diverting them from their proper destination; second, that there is in
favor of the prisoner the circumstance of his having denounced himself
and spontaneously confessed the offense; third, that the correspondence
had not been opened since the four packets had been placed in the hands
of Mr. Foote by Señor Vicuna MacKenna with their seals unbroken; fourth,
that neither was there any serious delay in the sending of the
correspondence from Cobija to La Paz on account of the interruption of
communication between the said port and the interior of Bolivia; fifth,
that this communication being suspended, the office at Cobija was not
obliged to send by another route correspondence directed to the latter
for transmission to La Paz, or any other place in the interior, for
reasons given by the director-general of the postal department in his
report to the 5th, remembering also the disposition of the laws (2d
chapter 13, part 3:26th chapter, 1st part, and articles 11, No. 8,
paragraph 2d, and 156 of the penal code), I condemn the said Don José
Gregorio Fariña Bravo, native of Linares, married, and who knows how to
read and write, for abstraction and interception of correspondence in
the post-office in Cobija, to sixty-one days of solitary confinement,
which are to be counted from the 29th of March last the date upon which
he was placed in prison; I acquit him of the other charges of the
accusation.
Let it be noted.
HUIDOBRO LILLO,
Secretary.
This conforms to what is found in the book referred to.
Santiago, November 3,
1883.
R. LILLO.
