723.2515/2041: Telegram
The Chargé in Peru (Wadsworth) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:00 p.m.]
31. Embassy’s telegram number 30, March 20, 10 p.m.26 Received the following at 9 last night from the President in writing:
“Memorandum by the President of Peru. The Government of Peru begs to thank the Government of the United States of America once more for the deferential spirit in which it again offers its good offices for a direct settlement of the Tacna-Arica question,27 which at the present moment is subject to a plebiscitary decision; but the Government of Peru regrets that, as it has already manifested on previous occasions, no effort whatever that may be made to come to a direct solution of the controversy is possible, in view of the procedure of the Chilean Government and the invariable want of good faith with which it has always treated Peru, even in the presence of the Arbitrator’s representatives; and, further, that any such efforts would only be conducive to bringing about a position for Peru which would be worse than the one that it is undergoing in the present circumstances and which would only terminate in war.
In view of the fact that the Government of the United States is not disposed to guarantee the present state of peace between the two countries in case of need and which in the opinion of the Government of Peru is likely to result in hostilities brought about by Chile owing to the methods which the latter country usually adopts and which methods would make war inevitable, the Government of Peru is of the opinion that there can be no better solution of the problem than a plebiscite and that the Government of the United States within the [Page 339] ample faculties reserved by the Arbitrator to himself can create a situation that will permit the carrying out of a free and honest plebiscite, in view of the open opposition of Chile to comply with the guarantees promised by the Plebiscitary Commission. Lima, 20th March, 1926.”