723.2515/774: Telegram

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

82. I was today called to the Ministry and shown a telegram just received signed by the Chilean Minister for Foreign Affairs inviting the Peruvian Government to open negotiations with regard to Tacna Arica on the basis of the Billinghurst54 agreement of 1912. Salomon asked me to ascertain from the Embassy Santiago whether telegram was authentic. If it was bona fide he stated only one reply could be made, namely, that Peru would consent to a settlement of this question by arbitration only. It was idle to talk of negotiations based on the Billinghurst agreement as this had been utterly repudiated in Peru after it became public, the persecutions and deportations of Peruvians in the two provinces precluded a fair plebiscite and it was now a question of the revision of the whole Treaty of Ancon. Peru would welcome arbitration under the auspices of the United States and accept any decision handed down.

… The Minister is sending copy of the telegram to Pezet. I have wired Santiago to confirm authenticity of message without revealing source of the inquiry.

Sterling
  1. Guillermo E. Billinghurst, President of Peru, 1912–14.