723.2515/2281: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile (Collier) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 13—9:57 a.m.]
151. After the publication of my note,89 Barros Jarpa gave out a statement that his memorandum of October 27th had been drafted to head off a proceeding in connection with good offices instituted by me before the American Government without the knowledge of the Chilean Government. I gave Mathieu a full history of the conversations of the Counsellor of the Ministry and Barros Jarpa as reported in my cables 102 and 108 of October,90 and requested that he correct this. He has given to the press the following statement:
“Official communication. In order to avoid erroneous interpretations of a statement made to a Santiago paper by the legal counsellor of this Ministry, Mr. Barros Jarpa, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, sets forth the following facts:
- First, that the Ambassador of the United States did not initiate any negotiation with his Government without the knowledge of the Chilean Government, but limited himself to transmitting statements that had been made to him on October 23 by a high functionary of the Ministry, in the sense that Chile would gladly accept the offer of good offices of the American Government in order to seek a diplomatic settlement of the Tacna-Arica question.
- Secondly, that the Secretary of State in his reply to this proposition, stated that only at the request of both parties could he consent to offer his good offices.
- Thirdly, that in a long conversation which Ambassador Collier had on October 27 with Mr. Barros Jarpa, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, in which the former informed the latter of the facts referred to in the two foregoing paragraphs, Mr. Barros Jarpa, after an exchange of ideas in regard to a possible diplomatic settlement, handed the Ambassador a memorandum which stated that the high official who had visited Ambassador Collier shortly before and to whose proposition the answer of the Secretary of State refers, acted in a strictly [Page 430] private and personal form and without the Ministry having any information with respect thereto. However, not only in the body of this memorandum but also in the conversation which followed, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Barros Jarpa, declared that the Government would consider with the best inclination solutions of peace that might be proposed to it by friendly governments; but that it was not soliciting this ‘because it did not wish to appear to be in a position of weakness which did not correspond to the Chilean position in Tacna-Arica’.
The action of the Government of the United States in offering their good offices at a later date was considered by the present Minister for Foreign Affairs and by the Government as the manifestation of a noble and loftily inspired purpose to seek a friendly solution of the problem of Tacna-Arica, which the two interested countries had been unable to reach directly.
During the exercise of these good offices, the Chilean Government has tried at all times to manifest its good disposition to find a diplomatic settlement satisfactory to both parties; but it has taken care that said negotiations would in no way prejudice the course of the plebiscitary proceedings as provided for in the award of the President of the United States.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs believes that he complies with an elemental obligation of justice, and at the same time of wise foresight, in stating that every public article or utterance made with the idea of creating doubts as to the correctness of the action with which the friendly Government of the United States is proceeding, not only in everything that relates to the pending arbitration but also in that which relates to the negotiations under good offices which are being carried on in Washington, would be unjust and contrary to the appreciation which the Government feels for that action. Santiago, May 12, 1926.”
While this is not as specific as I would like, yet I think that it clearly shows your position and the correctness of my action at that time; and everybody seems to think that it and the memorandum clearly show that the Chilean Foreign Office last October tried to get us to offer good offices and refrained from making the request itself merely in order not to appear weak.
Today several influential Senators and Deputies told me the publication had worked great change of sentiment.