723.2515/1082: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Peru (Sterling)
65. The Department understands that the Chilean Government has now ratified without reservations the Protocol and Supplementary Act regarding the settlement of the Tacna-Arica dispute and that the only remaining step to put these instruments into operation is the acceptance by Peru of the exchange of ratifications notwithstanding the lapse of time.
The Department learns that the Chilean Government has approached the Peruvian Government through the Ambassadors in Washington in this matter. The American Government is not in a position, in view of the selection of the President of the United States as Arbitrator, to make any formal representations in the premises, but it would learn with gratification that the Peruvian Government had accepted to extend the time within which the exchange of ratifications should take place, in order to permit the ratifications to be exchanged now. From the point of view of the Department, now that the Protocol and Supplementary Act have [Page 518] been ratified without modifications, the delay of some six weeks over the time specified for the exchange of ratifications would not appear to change the situation, and it would be most regrettable should the settlement of this long standing question be prevented merely on the technical ground of the expiration of the time limit originally stipulated.
The above is for your information, not to be used as a basis of formal representations, but to be used in your discretion should a suitable informal opportunity present itself.