723.2515/821: Telegram
President Harding to President Saavedra of Bolivia
I have read with great interest Your Excellency’s telegram of January 21st, eloquently expressing your country’s aspiration to secure an outlet to the sea, which was lost as a consequence of the War of the Pacific, and of its desire to secure a modification of the terms of the Treaty entered into with the Republic of Chile in 1904.
Your Excellency asks that “in the hearing given to the dispute that Peru and Chile wish to submit to me, I will listen to the claims of Bolivia and call your country so that it may be considered as a constituent part in solving the case of the Pacific.” In reply, I beg to explain to Your Excellency that the invitation which I had the honor to address to the Governments of Peru and Chile does not contemplate a hearing before me or before the Government of the United States of the matters in controversy between those governments.
Having noted in the telegrams recently exchanged directly between the Governments of Chile and Peru1 that the idea of a meeting of representatives of the two countries for the purpose of reaching a settlement of the difficulties growing out of the unfulfilled provisions of the Treaty of Ancon, either directly or by arbitration, seemed acceptable in principle to both, I invited them to send representatives to Washington for this purpose. This invitation, I am happy to state, has been accepted, and I am informed that representatives of the two countries will soon be appointed to meet in Washington for the purpose of arriving at a settlement, or a means of settlement, by direct negotiations between themselves.
[Page 459]Your Excellency will readily understand from the foregoing that the inclusion of Bolivia in the discussion of the questions at issue between the Governments of Peru and Chile is a matter for the exclusive consideration of the two Governments concerned, and that in the circumstances I am precluded from taking the initiative you suggest.
I deeply appreciate the friendly sentiments of Your Excellency’s telegram and beg to assure Your Excellency of the great interest of Government and the people of the United States in the welfare and prosperity of the country over whose destinies you so worthily preside.
I beg [etc.]