723.2515/2065: Telegram
The Consul at Arica (Von Tresckow) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:55 a.m.]
From Lassiter for Secretary Kellogg, with the request that this message be communicated at once to the Arbitrator.
1. As representative of the Arbitrator I have now been forced into an impossible situation through having carried out the urgent requests of the State Department. I have, it is true, followed a perfectly consistent policy, namely, that I was prepared to go ahead with the plebiscite; but now that Peru has been led to conform to the State Department’s policy, Chile eludes that policy and insists on going on with the plebiscite. To go on with the plebiscite means to drive Peru out, as the conditions here are too intolerable for her to stay in. What we ought to do under the circumstances is to revert to the policy I proposed some time ago of terminating the plebiscite and fixing the blame in restrained tones on Chile; but, having just two days ago put myself on record as prepared to go [ahead] with the plebiscite, I am at a great disadvantage.
2. The situation here is ominous. Outbursts of violence are almost certain to occur and no one can tell how far they will go. No matter how far we attempt to carry out this plebiscite, it can end in no acceptable result. It should be terminated at once and thus avoid the suffering, the loss of life, and the added bitterness sure to accrue and enable our country to get out of this affair in something like a dignified way.
3. I accordingly ask that you intervene and on your motion terminate the plebiscite on the grounds that the experience of the past 7 months fully convinces you that an acceptable plebiscite cannot be carried out under existing conditions and that it is necessary to put an end to the above proceedings leading only to increased animosities, or that you rule on your own motion that for the same reasons given above that in order for the plebiscite to be continued the territory must be neutralized.
4. This morning I received the following from Mr. Freyre.
“In compliance with instructions from my Government to the effect that according to the understanding with the Government of the United States I should take steps at once looking to the suspension of the plebiscitary proceedings, I have today given instructions to the Peruvian members of the registration boards not to concur thereto.”
We now have reached the impasse in which one party refuses to go ahead on account of its acceptance of good offices and the other insists on proceeding despite the acceptance of good offices.