723.2515/843: Telegram

President Saavedra of Bolivia to President Harding

[Translation99]

Animated by that spirit of high justice which belongs to the most conspicuous representative of the free peoples of America, Your Excellency made known to the Governments of Chile and Peru your wish to invite them to appoint their delegates in Washington in order to bring to an end, under the moral influence of the Government of the Union, the long-standing dispute between those Republics in consequence of the War of the Pacific of 1879.

Although the dispute in which the Republics of Peru and Chile are involved and to the termination of which Your Excellency wishes efficaciously to contribute seems to be confined to the disagreement over the nonfulfillment of the so-called Treaty of Ancon, it cannot be overlooked that it concerns Bolivia, for my country was indeed a victim of the conflict of the Pacific and there can be no fair, no final solution until reparation is made for the loss of her maritime territory. The pact of Ancón, having delivered to Chile the whole of the southern coast of Peru, placed the conqueror [Page 454] in a position where he would not yield any part of the Bolivian coast, so as not to break the continuity in his conquests toward the north.

My country’s insistent protests have been answered by the Republic of Chile invoking the text of the treaty of October 20, 1904, by which Bolivia transferred to it the sovereignty over her whole coast. But the treaty of 1904 was not a free spontaneous act. There is no people, no matter how unfortunate, who will cripple its own sovereignty, who will of its own free will give up intercourse with the other peoples of the civilized globe through the vehicle of all human commerce, the ocean. In order to bring this about, the exertion of a very powerful pressure, such as that exercised by the victor over the vanquished who has been compelled to disrupt the essential attributes of his century-old sovereignty, must necessarily be presumed. That is precisely what the pact of 1904 was, the outcome of a war unjust in origin and unequal in progress.

A treaty of that nature merely attests an actual state or condition, not an undisputed right or a freely accepted balance. And because Bolivian sovereignty was injured and mutilated by the pact of 1904, immediately after its signature my country raised the banner of vindication for its maritime dependencies without which it cannot either live as an independent nation or work out its destinies with dignity.

Bolivia from her traditional respect for her international engagements would claim nothing under these or like circumstances if that treaty under which Chile shields her acquired rights represented, if not a relation of perfect justice, at least a situation that my country could bear. But that treaty not only is unjust because it cuts off a whole people from free connection with the ocean, which that people had from the day it came into autonomous existence, but as an enforced decision will forever be a source of uneasiness and unrest to the peace of South America; for as long as Bolivia is not reinstated in the territory of which she was despoiled, she will keep stirring the conscience of the world with her demands that justice be done in her case. My country, Most Excellent Sir, cannot possibly reconcile itself to living locked up within the walls of a geographic jail forced upon it by the fortunes of war, when the principles of a new law of nations has opened to all the peoples of the European continent born under its protection, the doors to the ocean as an indispensable condition for their existence, and when all the nations and the United States in particular are earnestly advocating the reign of a policy of respect for the weak peoples.

And this is why I appeal at this moment to Your Excellency and ask you in the name of the Bolivian people that in the hearing given to the dispute that Peru and Chile wish to submit to you, you will [Page 455] listen to the claims of Bolivia and call my country so that it may be considered as a constituent part in solving the case of the Pacific. The Foreign Office of my country, in notes addressed to those at Santiago and Lima with reference to the invitation extended by the Government of Chile to that of Peru for a direct settlement, declared that no possible final settlement of the lasting effects of the war of 1879 could be effected without Bolivia’s being given an opportunity to be heard with regard to her invaded rights. And so the attitude which it is my privilege to submit to Your Excellency’s consideration is entirely consistent with the action taken again and again by Bolivia for the purpose of having her very just claims attended to.

Therefore Your Excellency, representing a great people who are seeking solutions of peace and justice for the world, will not forget that there is a nation in need at this time when it may be possible to bring to a final solution the dispute of the Pacific, and will entertain this petition which I present that Bolivia may appoint a representative in Washington who will present the right that stands on my country’s side in the exigencies of this international dispute.

I wish, on this occasion, to offer to Your Excellency the sentiments of my highest and special consideration.

B. Saavedra
  1. File translation revised.