723.2515/778
The Chilean Ambassador (Mathieu) to the Secretary of State
Excellency: I have the honor to make known to Your Excellency the following cablegram I have received from my Government:
“You are informed that by resolution of the Government, adopted by all of the Ministers and by all of the leaders of the political parties in conference with His Excellency the President of the Republic, a communication has been this day52 addressed, by cable, to the Peruvian Government, inviting that Government to join in holding the plebiscite provided for in paragraph 3 of the Treaty of Ancon, for the purpose of determining definitively the nationality of the territories of Tacna and Arica. The invitation was formulated on the basis of the plebiscite proposal that was made by the Government of Peru in the year 1912 and that was the basis of the negotiations carried on by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Don Antonio Huneeus, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru, Don Wenceslao Valera.53 The Government has preferred this form of invitation to hold a plebiscite because, being of Peruvian origin, it should be more feasible; and as a demonstration of the lofty spirit in which we are seeking the solution of the Tacna–Arica problem, the invitation contains the express declaration that the Chilean Government, in its desire to find an amicable means of settling this ancient controversy, will gladly welcome any suggestion which the Peruvian Government may wish to make for the purpose of assuring the honesty, freedom, and genuine expression of the vote of the inhabitants of Tacna and Arica. Even though the bases proposed by Peru in the year 1912 advocated the holding of a plebiscite in 1933, thus conferring upon our country, which exercises its sovereignty in Tacna and Arica, a valuable prospect for the increase of Chile’s preponderance there, the invitation made this date establishes the fact that Chile is ready to agree to an earlier date for the holding of the plebiscite, as a contribution to the lofty spirit of continental cordiality that prompts this step on the part of the Chilean Government.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs directs me to say to Your Excellency that the attitude of our Government reflects the sentiment of international harmony and a sincere desire to eliminate the causes that disturb the cordiality which Chile desires to mark her relations with all the American nations.
I avail myself [etc.]
- File translation revised.↩
- December 12.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1913, pp. 1222 ff.↩