723.2515/2088: Telegram
The Ambassador in Peru (Poindexter) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 2—8:43 a.m.]
40. [Paraphrase.] Your No. 31, March 31, 1 p.m. I have just seen President Leguía and conveyed to him the sense of your message. He gave most careful and deliberate attention and thought to the statement, and seemed, for the first time since I have been conferring with him on this matter, almost overcome by difficulties and burdens of the problem, and, as he said, by the sudden disappointment in development [Page 368] of the situation just when he was feeling measure of relief at what appeared to be some hope of solution. He said Peru could not accept responsibility for situation which has come about or for failure of plebiscite or of good offices, if that should follow. He had assumed that you had come to conclusion that it was not practicable to continue with plebiscite and that you had thereupon intervened with offer of good offices, to replace in that way proceedings under the award which situation rendered impossible. Immediately after he had accepted your offer of good offices, he said, he had received your message of March 25 asking Government of Peru to instruct Freyre to cooperate in bringing about a suspension of the registration.42 Accordingly, instructions to that end had been given at once, and he appeared deeply moved and saddened that he was now seemingly condemned for his action, after having given these instructions at your request.
… He said that he had accepted your offer of good offices notwithstanding failure to concede conditions which he had urged, in the hope that some just settlement nevertheless might be found. He seemed quite overcome by fact that in this he was to be disappointed and that blame was to be put on Peru. The entire burden of the problem, he said, rested on him personally, and it was only through his determination that Peru’s delegation had remained in Arica as long as it had. … He also said that he could not understand your statement that the Commission lacks authority to suspend the plebiscitary proceedings, as the terms of the award expressly give the Commission this authority. I made the following explanation: [End paraphrase.]
That my understanding of your statement was that the Plebiscitary Commission had no authority to suspend or postpone the plebiscitary proceedings merely on account of the acceptance of good offices and that I did not understand it to deprive the Commission of the authority to carry out the terms of the award in the discretion of the Commission. The President stated that General Lassiter had stated to the Peruvian delegate that he could not act in the matter without instructions from Washington and that he had received no instructions. I explained to the President that, as I understood the situation, it was that in your desire if possible to bring about a lasting settlement of the controversy, you did not desire to make a final breach with either party which would close the door to further negotiations and so, upon a failure of the plebiscite as well, leave matters unsettled, and that perhaps for that reason the Commission had been as lenient as it had been with Chile. I told the President that I did not understand that you intended in any way to blame him or Peru for any action which they had taken in the past, but that in view of the new situation which [Page 369] had developed and of your earnest desire to be of service to both parties and to bring about a final settlement of the dispute, you were appealing to him to cooperate with you with that end in view; and I suggested to the President that he cable to Mr. Freyre to have a frank consultation with General Lassiter about the entire matter from all angles with a view to cooperating towards that end. The President stated that he would do so, but reiterated that unless protection were given to Peruvian voters and the terror which reigns in the provinces were stopped it would be impossible for them to participate in the plebiscite; and referred again to the findings on this question which had been made by the American advisers on the ground.
He said that in addition to this the whole morale and spirit of the Peruvian delegation had been broken by the offer and acceptance of good offices and the general assumption in Arica that this meant that the plebiscite would not be carried through.