Mr. Egan to Mr.
Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
Santiago, August 3, 1891.
(Received October 3.)
No. 188]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose translation, cut
from Chilean Times, of an article which appeared on 31st ultimo in La
Nacion, of Santiago, the official organ of the Government, in reference to
the extraordinary conduct of some of the commanders and officers of the
British war ships on this coast during the present conflict. The feeling on
the subject in Government circles is intense. They charge that all of the
revolutionary correspondence between north and south is carried by the
English vessels of war, and that the commanders and officers of those ships,
as well as the English element generally in this country, have done
everything in their power against the Government and in favor of the
revolution, in entire disregard of their duty as neutrals.
It is positively asserted by the Government that the commander of H. B. M’s
ship Melpomene recently brought to Iquique news that
there had been a desperate revolt among the Government troops in Coquimbo,
resulting in a fight in which there were a large number killed and wounded.
Upon hearing this news, which was absolutely unfounded, the revolutionary
leaders in Iquique immediately dispatched to Caldera an expedition of about
2,000 men to take advantage of the supposed demoralization of the Government
forces.
The Government has also received information that the commander of H. M. ship
Espiègle made about a month ago overtures to, or
at least talked with, Commandant Moraga, the commander of the Government
naval squadron, in a manner calculated to induce him to betray the
Government and hand over the torpedo-catchers Lynch
and Condel and the fast transport Imperial to the revolutionists. The Government has, I believe,
made very strong private representations to the British minister on these
subjects.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.—Translation from La Nacion of
Santiago, July 31, 1891.]
British officers censured by La Nacion.
In yesterday’s edition of the Nacion there appears an article, of which
we give below a translation, with the following sensational headlines:
“Some vessels of the British squadron commit reprehensible acts and
unworthy of a serious nation.
[Page 151]
It was the commander of the Melpomenc who carried
to Iquique the false news of the mutiny of the Coquimbo division. How
the commander of the Garnet last night lighted up
all the north coast of Coquimbo with the electric light, firing guns, as
if it were an enemy’s vessel that was running along the coast.
“The conduct of some of the commanders of Her Britannic Majesty’s vessels
of war is highly reprehensible. They frequently carry false news north,
and they also bring them south. It was the commander and the officers of
the Melpomenc who carried to Iquique the news
that the Coquimbo division had revolted and that many men were killed
and wounded. This was the reason of the rebels undertaking an expedition
to Atacama, and this was the cause of the underground revolutionists in
Santiago believing in the destruction of the Coquimbo division and in
the occupation of that province by the rebel forces. These jokes with
the revolutionists are not proper in serious officers, nor in gentlemen.
The night before last the corvette Garnet, also
British, left Coquimbo and ran along the coast northwards, making
incessant use of her electric light and firing guns for several hours at
midnight. These gun exercises on a littoral Where there exists a Chilean
army, and at midnight, reveal in the officers of that vessel a
forgetfulness of British austerity and the difference that exists
between English sailors of another age and the playful and skylarky ones
of to-day. It is to be hoped that the British minister will recommend
the British sailors to observe greater seriousness in future, and not to
expend their powder at night, because happily nobody nowadays believes
in ghosts, nor do they require to make those exercises to prove their
skill and military discipline.”
