723.2515/3290: Telegram
The Ambassador in Peru (Moore) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:25 a.m.]
31. I saw the Chilean Ambassador just after his conference with President Leguia. He told me that President Leguia had stated to him that if a suitable port could be constructed at the point suggested by Chile, he would accept the proposition, and he asked for a copy of the plans of the Chilean engineers. The Chilean Ambassador [Page 740] informed President Leguia that he had no plans but that he would telegraph President Leguia’s request to the Government of Chile. I asked Ambassador Figueroa how long it would take to get the plans here. He replied that it would probably take a month.
According to the best information I possess no survey has been made by any Chilean engineers, and my conviction is that it was just assumed that a port was possible at the place they suggested.
When the President of Peru agreed to my suggestion to establish a Peruvian port near Arica, he sent engineers to me for instructions. I accordingly requested the engineers to ascertain if it was possible to locate a port at least 10 to 15 kilometers north of Arica, and if not, to go down the coast and ascertain where it was possible to locate a port the farthest away from Arica. The engineers surveyed the coast from 15 kilometers north of Arica to the proposed location, and they told the President of Peru, and they also told me, that it was impossible to locate any port more than 300 or 400 meters north of the selected location, and they told me that the location 10 kilometers from Arica, selected by the Chileans, is just on the open sea, and that no port could be constructed there under any circumstances without the expenditure of from ten to fifteen million dollars, and perhaps not even for that sum.
The willingness of President Hoover to cooperate to the extent of having the final suggestion for settlement come from him is most helpful. I do not think that any settlement could be made without his cooperation, as both President Leguia and the Chilean Ambassador asked me to ascertain whether,—meters being in agreement,—President Hoover would make the suggestion embodying the settlement already agreed upon by them.
It is apparent to me that neither Government is certain how its people will take any settlement, and they desire to have the prestige of President Hoover’s judgment back of them.