Chrome seems not to display elements in inline svg. Here is an example (code below or view it at http://www.bobwyttenbach.com/chromeuse.html):
Ok so I deleted my last post as I incorrectly tried to figure out why the use element was working for me and not for you. What I can say is that I am using a modified version of this source, https://code.google.com/p/svg-edit/ , so in short, my answer is to walk through and see how they do it. I believe its demonstrated when you insert an image from their library.