723.2515/933: Telegram

The Chargé in Peru (Sterling) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

44. Your no. 43, of May 20, 1 p.m. The President stated to me that it is Peru’s contention that the Treaty of Ancon has been violated by Chile’s nonfulfillment of certain of its clauses, and that by reason of this nonfulfillment the whole treaty had consequently been nullified. It is in this sense that the Peruvian delegates have been instructed, and the President assured me that they have not been instructed to demand the return of Tarapacá.

The President regards the invitation as extended as an invitation to Peru and Chile to settle their existing difficulties or to arrange for their settlement by arbitration and [as not?] limiting the conference solely to the discussion of the article in the treaty which deals with Tacna-Arica. He gave as an example Chile’s recent incorporation into Tacna of Tarata, a province whose boundaries have always been disputed, for although this point has nothing to do with a discussion of the nonfulfillment of the provisions of the treaty yet it is vital to the question as a whole.

I am certain in my own mind that the President desires most sincerely a successful issue in Washington, but it must be remembered that the Peruvian Congress has voted the Treaty of Ancon to be null and void, and that the Government has committed itself to arbitration as a solution of the dispute.

Sterling