No. 15.
Mr. Osborn
to Mr. Fish.
Buenos Ayres, June 15, 1875. (Received July 22.)
Sir: Dr. Tejedor, the late minister of foreign affairs of the Argentine Republic, who had charge of the special mission to Brazil, as stated in my dispatch No. 48,* returned on the 8th instant, after an absence of six weeks; and it now becomes my duty to advise you of the result of the mission, so far as I have been able to obtain.
I have learned personally from the very highest and best authority that Dr. Tejedor was received with distinguished consideration at the court of Rio de Janeiro, to which he was accredited; but that no questions were raised concerning the fortification of the island of Martin Garcia, although the Argentine government had expected it, and had given him instructions in regard to them.
Dr. Tejedor proposed, according to his instructions, two solutions of the pending difficulties: 1st. Galled a “transaction” or a mutual cession on both sides of a part of these demands, i. e., that the Villa Occidental should belong to the Argentine Republic, its boundaries to be drawn from the Verde stream, one mile north of the village; thence west twelve miles; thence south to the principal channel of the river Pilcomayo, about twenty-four miles according to the course of the river Paraguay.
By this proposition the Argentine Republic voluntarily yields six hundred miles of territory by the channel of the river Paraguay up to Bahia Negro, and which was declared to belong to her by article 16 of the treaty of alliance with Brazil; and, moreover, which she always claimed by virtue of her metropolitan rights, as the seat of the Spanish vice royalty in the Plate.
2d. That the Argentine Republic would leave the whole question of limits to arbitration, provided the island of Cerrito, at the confluence of the rivers Paraguay and Parana, always her territory, and so claimed, but still occupied by the Brazilian forces, should be immediately evacuated.
I learn that neither of these propositions, generous as they at least .seem to have been, were accepted by the Brazilian ministers. Dr. Tejedor then addressed himself to Senor Sosa, the Paraguayan minister, who at first declined both propositions; a few days after he decided to treat with Dr. Tejedor, although without instructions to do so, and, in the absence of instructions not to do so, accepted the first proposition.
Inasmuch as Brazil had, as claimed by the Argentine government, violated the treaty of alliance by treating alone with Paraguay, in the case of the treaty known as “Cotegipe,” she could not object to the position of the Argentine minister in making a separate treaty with the Paraguayan minister to Brazil; hence a treaty was drawn up by Dr. Tejedor and the Paraguayan minister, based upon the first proposition.
I understand that when the Brazilian ministers were requested to give their approval they declined, but acknowledged the right of the Argentine minister to treat with Paraguay without their concurrence, the same as they had done in the treaty “Cotegipe,” without the concurrence of their ally, the Argentine Republic.
The next day the Emperor called a cabinet meeting, and his ministers declined thereafter all action in the negotiation.
But I am informed that they called (and he was present) the Paraguayan [Page 37] minister to induce him to refuse all propositions of the Argentine minister; which he refused to do, although it is claimed the Brazilian government pays his expenses at Rio de Janeiro.
The Paraguayan minister and Dr. Tejedor further agreed upon a separate document, called a “convention adicional,” in reference to the war-indemnities. And while it is claimed that Brazil has, in her treaty with Paraguay, fastened upon her a debt of some three hundred millions, the Argentine government, to prevent all possible charge that she bought what always belonged to her, and which she always claimed, to wit, the Villa Occidental, made a separate treaty or convention, releasing Paraguay from all claims or charges for the expenses of the war.
When the council of ministers met after these arrangements, the Brazilian ministers made no opposition to the proposed settlement, but declined to sign the protocols.
Yesterday morning Dr. Rocha, one of the senators of the province of Buenos Ayres, in the Argentine congress, left for Paraguay.
Should the treaties of Dr. Tejedor and the Paraguayan minister not be ratified by Paraguay, it will be, I have no doubt, claimed here as the result of Brazilian occupation in Paraguay.
I am, &c.,
- Anie.↩