Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.
Santiago, October 13, 1891. (Received October 14.)
Mr. Egan states that the foreign office, in its reply to his representations, says that the instructions to the intendente authorized the arrest of no one except upon well-founded suspicion of being agents of illegal [Page 185] attempts on the part of refugees and on the public streets away from the legation, and that access to the legation should have been entirely free. Minister for foreign affairs deplores all errors committed by police agents against any persons not properly subject to suspicion, and avers that no vexation was intended to the legation. He considers that, since a decree was issued on the 14th September by the Provisional Government, submitting supporters of the late Government to the tribunals, it would be an unjustifiable irregularity to grant safe-conduct. Were it possible to do so, he says, without disrespect to the law, the interest of the country, or the prestige of the Government, it would be given as a proof of amity towards the legation. In replying, Mr. Egan will cite important instances in which Chile strongly advocated safe-conduct under similar circumstances.