Office of the Historian

723.2515/698: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Peru (Gonzales)

Washington, November 6, 1920—7 p.m.

90. Your November 4, 11 a.m.

The Department is advised that the action of the Peruvian Delegates to the Assembly of the League of Nations will probably be limited to notifying the Assembly that Peru will at some time in the future file the petition of which you have been informed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In any event, the Department is not prepared to recommend to the Peruvian Government that it abstain from requesting the Assembly to appoint a special commission to consider the Peru–Chile dispute.

The Department does not believe that any useful purpose will be served by making any representations to the present Government of Chile, with a view to inducing Chile to agree to arbitration of the dispute. While information received from the Chilean Embassy in Washington leads the Department to believe that the Chilean Government would not refuse arbitration limited to the settlement of the manner in which the provisions of the Treaty of Ancon are to be carried out, it is not thought that arbitration restricted to this extent would effect any lasting settlement of the controversy, even if, as seems doubtful, it were acceptable to Peru. The Department is of the opinion that only arbitration of the whole general problem, from consideration of which the claims of Bolivia should not be omitted, can bring about a satisfactory settlement, and its information leads it to believe that the possibility of such arbitration will be favorably considered by the new administration of that Government99 soon to [Page 350] be inaugurated. When the views of the President-elect of Chile upon this point have been definitely ascertained, it will be possible to determine whether representations to Chile to accept arbitration will be of any value. In the meantime, the Department does not believe that final adjustment of the controversy will be made more difficult by the consideration of the question by any commission appointed by the League of Nations.

Colby
  1. The Government of Chile.↩