No. 3.
Mr. Blaine to Mr. Osborn .

No. 144.]

Sir: I have read with deep interest the report you made to this Department in your No. 317, of the 4th of April last, touching the efforts of yourself and your colleague at Santiago de Chili to lessen the strain which exists between the Argentine Republic and Chili in the matter of the Patagonian boundary dispute, and to bring about the peaceful and final arbitrament of the question.

I need not, at this late day, in view of the consistent attitude of the United States in favor of international arbitration as a means of averting unfriendliness, or the deplorable horrors of warfare between nations, express the gladness with which this government would do any and every thing in its power to aid in so fortunate a disposition of this long pending and dangerous issue. I am sure that the readiness of the United States to lend its good offices in this direction, on any honorable and practical basis, is already appreciated on both sides. You should, however, lose no fitting opportunity of impressing this benevolent disposition on the mind of the Government of the Argentine Republic. In doing so you should take especial care to create the trusting conviction on its part that the United States, whether as counseling peaceful arbitration or in the possible resort of being chosen as arbitrator, would approach the question with absolute impartiality, having no bias toward either phase of the contention, and no desire for aught save the ascertainment of the right and the manifestation of justice. You should also let it be distinctly seen that we do not seek the position of arbitrator, but if the offer were made, our duty to our sister republics of the distant South would forbid our declining it.

A similar instruction is this day written to Mr. Thomas A. Osborn at Santiago.

I am, &c.,

JAMES G. BLAINE.