Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1905

Minister Dudley to the Secretary of State.

American Legation,
Lima, Peru, August 1, 1905.

No. 1151.]

Sir: I have the honor to mention that the Peruvian Congress assembled in ordinary session on the 28th ultimo. The organization of the two chambers shows that in each the government continues to have a strong majority. The opening ceremonies, held in a joint session, were attended, as is the custom, by members of the executive and judicial branches of the government who reside at the capital and by the diplomatic and consular corps at Lima.

Under separate cover I inclose two copies of the message read by the President upon the occasion; and herewith inclose translation of extracts therefrom.

I have, etc.,

Irving B. Dudley.

[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 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.