Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.
Santiago, July 30, 1891. (Received October 3.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your dispatch No. 106 of 28th May, with inclosed copy of a letter from Mr. D. H. B. Davis, of Lima, Peru, in which that gentleman states that it is rumored and that the rumor comes from “high and respectable authority (English)” that I have advised the Government of Chile to grant letters of marque to privateers as a war measure. In reply I beg to say that I feel obliged to Mr. Davis for affording me this opportunity to give an unqualified contradiction to the statement. Not only have I not given the advice which this “high and respectable” English authority attributes to me, but I have never given to the Government of Chile any advice or suggestion as to the conduct of the war. Throughout this unhappy conflict I have endeavored to maintain, as I am bound under my instructions to do, cordial relations with the Government to which I am accredited $ at the same time I have the assurance that I have retained the friendship and confidence of all of the leaders of the opposition. As an evidence of this I may point to the part which I was enabled to take in the negotiations for the reestablishment of peace, inaugurated in the beginning of May, and to the fact that the conferences then held of the delegates of the revolutionary party were, with the full knowledge and consent of the Government, held in this legation.
Since the commencement of the revolution I have been requested on various occasions by the opposition to exercise good offices in their behalf in favor of the liberation of prisoners, the mitigation of punishment, the preservation of convent schools and clerical colleges from military occupation, and other similar matters, in all of which cases every intimation that I made to the Government was most cordially received and in almost all cases promptly acted upon. Mr. J. W. Merriam, United States consul in Iquique, writing me under date of 15th July in reference to some severe and entirely unmerited strictures which were published in the Nacional, an important revolutionary organ in Iquique, in reference to me, says:
Yesterday I had an interview with Mr. Irrarrazaval, the minister of the interior, and in the course of the conversation I alluded to the editorial of the Nacional, and [Page 150] he, with entire frankness, assured me that the Junta de Gohierno regretted that the Nacional had so expressed its opinions, and that he and the other members of the cabinet had no complaint to make as to your position and procedures in this civil conflict; which, properly interpreted, means that you have maintained your position as a neutral.
In the present terribly excited condition of public feeling here, when every act and word are closely criticised and often distorted, it is extremely difficult to avoid being misrepresented, but so far I can congratulate myself upon having been able to keep this legation clear of all entanglements.
I have, etc.,