No. 15077/85.

The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé Pierrepont.

No. 150.]

Sir: Referring to previous correspondence, the department acknowledges the receipt of Mr. Hicks’s dispatch No. 311, of February 22, 1909, in regard to the protection of Chinese in Chile. Mr. Hicks referred to an inquiry made of him by the consul at Iquique as to whether children born in Chile of Chinese parents are to be considered Chinese subjects and furnished with the usual certificates of protection.

In reply I have to state that, as the persons mentioned by the consul at Iquique are, by Chilean law, citizens of Chile, it would not be proper for our representatives in that country to assert their Chinese citizenship and extend protection to them in that capacity, against the contention of the Chilean Government that they are its citizens.

I am, etc.,

Huntington Wilson.