No. 551.
Mr. Christiancy to Mr. Blaine.
Lima, Peru, May 9, 1881. (Received June 2.)
Sir: I have intimated, in several of my late dispatches, that the action of the Chilian Government, as shown by their officers here, foreshadowed the intention of that government to hold the whole of Peru, or so much of it as they should find practicable, at least all west summits of the western range of the Andes, as a permanent conquest.
Enough has now transpired to show that my suspicions were correct.
The mask has now been completely thrown off. The Chilian papers, both in Chili and Peru, openly declare this as the intention of the Chilian Government; and the military officers here openly declare the same thing. Colonel Lagos, the commander of the Chilian forces here, had made an arrangement with the provisional government of Francisco Garcia Calderon, to allow his government the control of the custom-house in the northern ports of Peru, to enable him to support his government, and the right to send some 500 or 600 soldiers to the northern towns to enforce his authority to this end.
But some four or five days since the assistant secretary of war of Chili arrived here and the above arrangement was at once disapproved and revoked, and Señor Calderon’s soldiers were not allowed to embark; and no effort is now made to conceal the intention to occupy Peru indefinitely; but this intention is publicly declared.
As explained by the best informed Chilian officers, the plan is to establish a civil government here under the protection of her army, a kind of provincial government, similar to that of the old viceroys, while the country belonged to Spain, Some of the Chilian officers give out that the arrangement is to last for some five years, more or less, until Peru shall have been able to establish a government of its own; but how it is to do this while the country is under the government of Chili, which is not likely to tolerate any attempt of this kind, is not explained.
In plain English, it is now clear that Chili means to hold the whole of Peru by right of conquest if she can.
Is there anything to prevent this result? Certainly (as to that part of Peru west of the summits of the western range of Andes) nothing short of the intervention of some European power or powers, or that of the United States.
The ministers of England and France had been authorized by their respective governments to offer their good offices by way of mediation, and though this offer had not been directly repulsed by Chili, but (as near as I can learn) accepted under qualification, those ministers now (under the present resolution of the Chilian Government) find no opening [Page 908] for the success of their efforts. Our minister in Chili has doubtless offered the mediation of our government, but the result must necessarily be the same. Mediation, simply as such, must now be utterly fruitless. Intervention against the will of Chili seems the only means of preventing the absorption of the greater part, or the whole of Peru by Chili.
Will any European government thus intervene? It seems to be well settled that the German Empire will not, nor will it even interfere by way of offering mediation. It is not at all likely that Italy would do so alone, though she has a powerful fleet. Russia and Austria have little interest in the question, and there remain only England and France, both of which seem to act in perfect accord, through their representatives here.
That England will not intervene as against Chili is sufficiently evident, not only from what is stated in my private and personal dispatch of last week, but from information I have this day received from the British minister, who informs me there is not the slightest probability that England will so intervene.
Will the United States do so?
This is a question which is not for me to answer. I have kept your Department fully advised of the facts upon which the solution of the question depends, and here my duty ends, until I shall receive instructions, which I am ready on all occasions to follow.
I ought to say further here that the provisional government had been endeavoring to get the old congress of 1879 to meet here or at Chorillos on the 15th instant, but they still lacked 34 of a quorum. I think now the idea of holding a congress will be abandoned, and that the Chilian authorities will not permit its meeting, if a quorum should be obtained. In fact it would seem now that the provincial government must go down. But we shall soon see.
I have, &c.,
P. S.—Perhaps I ought to add here (what sufficiently appears in my former dispatches) that the principal grounds upon which the Chilian authorities claim to base the right to adopt this policy of indefinite occupation, viz, that it has become necessary, because the Peruvians have neglected to form a government with which they could treat, and the anarchy which results from this state of things has been deliberately produced by their own action, and, to all appearance, for the very purpose of furnishing a pretext for the policy which they have finally adopted. They could have readily treated with Piérola, who was anxious to treat, and who had been and still is recognized by all the governments represented here, and by the Chilians themselves at Arica. But they refused to treat with him, and encouraged the setting up the provisional government of Calderon, and from time to time encouraged that government in its efforts, to some extent, but soon began to treat it with contempt, and to cut off from it one privilege after another, still allowing it to appeal to the people of Peru for their adhesion, and to call congress together, thus dividing the people of Peru between Piérola and Calderon in a manner which threatened civil war.
The ruse has been successful in producing the result desired, but quite unsuccessful, so far as relates to the concealment of the true motives of their action.
P. S.—May 11.—I learn from a letter this day received from Mr. Osborn that the Chilian Government actually rejected the offer of mediation by England and France.—I. P. C.