723.2515/3302: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile (Culbertson) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 18—12:50 a.m.]
42. Referring to the Department’s 31, March 16, 5 p.m. Of course Chile will not permit a port at the San José River superior to the port at Arica. A port at that place under the sovereignty of Peru at which oceangoing vessels can [dock?] may be an engineering possibility, but it is commercially absurd and politically impossible. Trade with Tacna would never justify it. Moreover, any attempt to use such a port to compete with Chile for the Bolivian trade would not bring the peace for which we are working. I do not think that President Leguia expects more than a lighterage port. President Leguia knows that world opinion would not uphold him in insisting, as the price of final settlement, upon a port superior not only to Arica but also to any port in Peru. If Engineer Cady will assure President Leguia that a suitable lighterage port can be built at or north of Escritos, he will do nothing less than settle the Tacna-Arica question without alteration, I think.