Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.
Santiago, December 13, 1891. (Received December 14.)
The following is my note to minister of foreign relations:
December 12, 1891.
Hon. Manuel A. Matta:
Sir: Having learned to-day of the interrogation put yesterday in the honorable Senate applying to the relations between the United States and Chile, I desire to know, officially and at the earliest moment possible, if the telegram directed by your excellency to Señor Don Pedro Montt, in Washington, and which your excellency read in the Senate, is the same as that published in the Ferrocarril of to-day, a copy of which I have the honor to send herewith. In this telegram your excellency, as minister of foreign relations of Chile, referring to the message of the President of the United States and the report of the Secretary of the Navy, says:
[Translation.] “The statements on which both report and message are based are erroneous or deliberately incorrect. * * * With respect to the seamen of the Baltimore, there is, moreover, no exactness nor sincerity in what is said at Washington.”
Referring to my note of 26th October, your excellency characterizes it as—
[Translation.] “aggressive in purpose and virulent in language.”
With regard to the summary examination begun on the 18th of October, your exellency says that:
[Translation.] “It has been delayed owing to the nonappearance of the officers of the Baltimore and owing to undue pretensions and refusals of Mr. Egan himself.”
Alluding to the testimony regarding the summary, your excellency says:
[Translation.] “You no doubt have the note of November 9, written in reply to Minister Egan, in which I request him to furnish testimony which he would not give, although he had said that he had evidence showing who the murderer was and who the other guilty parties of the 16th of October were.”
And your excellency concluded this telegram by saying:
[Translation.] “Deny in the meantime everything that does not agree with these [Page 270] statements, being assured of their exactness, as we are of the right, the dignity, and the final success of Chile, notwithstanding the intrigues which proceed from so low [a source] and the threats which come from so high [a source].”
I beg your excellency to be good enough to favor me with a reply regarding the authenticity of the telegram to which I refer and which your excellency has read to the honorable Senate with, as stated by your excellency, the special authority of His Excellency the President of the Republic and after having consulted with the other members of the honorable cabinet.
With the due expression of my consideration, I remain your excellency’s obedient servant,
Patrick Egan.
Since addressing the above note I find that the telegram referred to has appeared in the same terms in the official diary, and has been forwarded by the Chilean minister at Buenos Ayres to all Chilean legations in Europe. The correspondence between this legation and the Government on the Baltimore case is published in all papers here to-day.