Office of the Historian

Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay.

American Legation,
Buenos Ayres, September 13, 1904.
No. 36.]

Sir: I have the honor to report that there has been passed by the Congress and signed by the Executive of this Republic a bill ratifying two conventions agreed upon between this country and Chile in the matter of pending boundary questions. These two conventions were drawn up by the minister of foreign affairs of this Republic, Doctor Terry, and the Chilean minister at this capital, Dr. Vergara Donoso, and signed by them in this city on May 2 last. Submitted to Congress on the same day, they were ratified in joint session on August 25 last.

I inclose three copies of Boletin Oficial, No. 3265, of the 3d instant, which contains the text of the treaties, together with a translation of them into English.

Doctor Terry and the Chilean minister have again recently conferred on the matter of the pending boundary questions and it is likely that the above conventions will be followed by other or additional conventions, settling small difficulties that arise in the course of the work of fixing the actual frontier. If so, I shall at once report them.

I am, etc.,

A. M. Beaupré.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]

Conventions between the Argentine Republic and Chile.

Met at the ministry of foreign affairs and worship of the Argentine Republic, H. E. the minister of this Department, Doctor Jose Antonio Terry, and H. E. Mr. Jose Francisco Vergara Donoso, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Chile, with the purpose of reaching an agreement that should avoid whatever difficulty might arise between the commissions of the two countries in tracing in the region the line established by the arbitral decision of the [Page 41] boundary commission dated March 24th, 1899, their full powers exhibited and found to be in good and due form, agreed to the following:

1st.
That, if in the course of the operations of material demarcation of the straight lines indicated in the arbitral decision it should be found that these lines skirt some mountain ridge or other accident of nature which by its proximity to the same might offer a more permanent frontier, the mixed commission shall, the respective heads of the commissions being in accord, and without prejudice to the establishment of said lines, propose to the respective Governments the substitution of natural limits for these lines on terms of a fair compensation.
2d.
Once these lines proposed by common accord by the heads of the mixed commission have been accepted by the Governments, they shall be recognized as the ultimate boundary between the two countries, to which end the present agreement shall be submitted for their approval to the respective Congresses.

In confidence in which the present convention is signed and sealed in duplicate, in the city of Buenos Aires, on the second day of the month of May, 1904, by

(Signed)
J. A. Terry.

(Signed)
J. F. Vergara Donoso.

Met in the ministry of foreign affairs and worship of the Argentine Republic, H. E. the minister of this Department, Doctor Jose Antonio Terry, and H. E. Mr. Jose Francisco Vergara Donoso, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Chile, with the purpose of making an agreement that may facilitate the material demarcation of the boundary to the north of the 23d parallel of south latitude, their full powers exhibited and found to be in good and due form, agreed to the following:

To the north of the mentioned parallel 23 the ultimate boundary between the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Chile shall be a straight line which, beginning at the point of intersection of said parallel with the meridian 67 west of Greenwich, terminates in the highest peak of the Mount Zapaleri, indicated as such in the map prepared by the Argentino-Bolivian Boundary Commission.

Done and signed at Buenos Aires, this present convention, in duplicate, the second day of May, 1904.

(Signed)
J. A. Terry.

(Signed)
J. F. Vergara Donoso.