723.2515/359: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile (Shea) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 10, 5.34 a.m.]
Following reply of President of Chile to telegram of President Wilson December 4, 6 p.m.
“The President of Chile has received the most friendly declaration of His Excellency President Wilson which informs him of the apprehension with which the United States Government has viewed the various incidents which have resulted in the suspension of consular relations between the Republics of Chile and Peru. It is his duty to state in reply that said incidents have not altered for one moment the serenity with which the Government of Chile has considered these events which in some form or other might produce inquietude in its international relations.
His Excellency the President of the United States judiciously considers that any agitation which might disturb the prospects of world peace would be disastrous; in that the Peace Conference soon to be convoked in Paris will take under consideration the establishment of an era of the permanent peace among all people, and points out the grave responsibility that would be incurred before the world by those who [caused] such agitation.
The President of Chile takes the opportunity to state on this occasion that the Chilean people, for the past 35 years happily at [peace] with all nations have devoted all their energies to the establishment of their prosperity and well being and have justly settled all differences with their neighbors, and now most fervently desire to work for a definite peace among all peoples, a peace such as will be established by the Peace Conference of Paris.
His Excellency President Wilson calls the attention of the Governments of Chile and Peru to the obligation which they have to the rest of the world and to humanity relative to the maintenance of their peaceful relations.
The President of Chile is in accord with such an elevated concept, and can say that his Government has always done its best to disregard any event that might alter without reason the good relations which it has maintained and cultivated with all peoples, and more especially with the different countries of the American continent.
The message of His Excellency the President of the United States terminates by affirming his belief in the peaceful solution of the existing differences and manifests at the same time his readiness to offer alone or conjointly with other countries of this hemisphere every possible assistance to secure an equitable solution of the question.
The President of Chile is thankful for and is pleased with the most friendly sentiments of the Government of the United States, and trusts that the misunderstandings which Chile has with Peru, and which it has always tried to settle, will be definitely solved in conformity with the precepts of the treaty of Ancon which governs the relations between the two countries, and to the fulfillment of which the faith of the nation is bound.”
The Argentine Minister has just informed me that he was directed by his Government to offer mediation in conjunction with the United States, but was informed by the President of Chile that the United States had not offered mediation but assistance only. The Minister for Foreign Affairs insists that there is a difference between assistance and mediation or good offices. The Minister for Foreign Affairs assures me that a settlement will result from the present negotiations.