Under separate cover I inclose two copies of the message read by the
President upon the occasion; and herewith inclose translation of
extracts therefrom.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Extracts from the message to Congress of the
President of Peru of July 28, 1905.
The Peruvian Government has given instructions to its representative
in Buenos Ayres to express to the Argentine Government the consent
of Peru to the request of the Bolivian Government for the extension
of ten months in the time fixed for the presentation of all
documents for its defense in the question of limits submitted to the
arbitration of the President of the Argentine Republic. And His
Excellency the President of the Argentine Republic has thought fit
to accede to the request fixing the 15th of May, 1906, as the
definite date up to which both parties must present their respective
documents.
Our boundary questions with Brazil await the result of the protocol
of July 12, 1904, which has been prorogued until the 31st of
December of the present year.
The mixed commissions stipulated in the said protocol are at the
present moment carrying out the duties intrusted to them.
On the 10th of May next there will convene at Rio the mixed arbitral
tribunal charged with the settlement of the claims of Peruvians and
Brazilians in consequence of the disturbances suffered by our
citizens in the Perus and Yuruá.
His Holiness Pius X has won the gratitude of the Republic by kindly
permitting the apostolic nuncio at Rio to preside over the tribunal,
thus assuring its decisions the stamp of wisdom and justice
appropriate to its high functions.
The representation of the Republic at Rio being newly provided for,
my government is confident that within the extension agreed upon the
final settlement of the boundary questions will be accomplished, or,
in default thereof, that the arbitration agreed upon will be carried
out.
Inspired by a high spirit of confraternity, I celebrated, while I was
minister for foreign relations, an agreement with the
plenipotentiary of Colombia, Señor Tanco, for arbitration and the
modus vivendi of April, 1904, which has not had the approval of the
Government of Colombia.
Various clauses of the recent treaty celebrated between Bolivia and
Chile on October 20, 1904, gave rise to a protest of our foreign
office, presented to both of those governments, in defense of the
territorial rights of Peru in our provinces of Tacna and Arica,
rights which were affected by the said treaty.
Both governments replied that the said clauses do not bind Peru,
since it took no part in the arrangement, nor do they diminish her
territorial rights in the said provinces, which are subject to the
conditions of the treaty of Ancon.
But as the reply of the Chilean Government laid down doctrines which
invoked rights that Chile does not possess over the aforesaid
territories and at the same time invited us to open new negotiations
in order to come to a definite settlement, my government,
considering it a duty to continue the negotiations suspended since
1901, addressed another note to the Chilean Government, wherein
after correcting those doctrines it accepted the invitation “to
negotiate the execution of the treaty of Ancon as regards the
provinces of Tacna and Arica, feeling at the same time convinced
that nothing will contribute more to strengthen the cordial [Page 738] relations which should
unite American nations than the faithful fulfilment of their
international engagements and the bonds of their respective
interests.”
My government has placed in charge of this mission our representative
in Washington, Dr. Manuel Alvarez Calderón, whose competency and
patriotism is well known.
In consequence of the arrangement made with Ecuador for submitting
the definite solution of our questions of limits with that Republic
to the arbitration of the King of Spain, His Majesty, the arbiter,
has sent as his special commissioner to study the archives of Lima
and Quito Señor Ramón Menéndez Pidal.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that our foreign office has
concluded with the Government of Italy a general arbitration treaty,
which will be submitted to you for your approval. Its conditions are
more ample than those laid down in other treaties of a similar
nature signed between the great powers and the South American
nations.
