723.2515/3393
The Chilean Minister for Foreign Affairs (Rios Gallardo) to the American Ambassador in Chile (Culbertson)41
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note dated today by which Your Excellency, in compliance with instructions from your Government, sends me for transmission to His Excellency the President of the Republic the stipulations which the President of the United States of America in the exercise of good offices sought by the Parties and guided by the direct agreements arrived at by Chile and Peru proposes as the final bases of a solution of the Tacna-Arica problem.
It affords me satisfaction to declare to Your Excellency that these bases, having been transmitted to His Excellency the President of the Republic, the Government of Chile has decided to accept them in the terms and scope of the note which I now have the pleasure to answer.
My Government believes, therefore, that the Treaty which is to be concluded between Chile and Peru in accordance with those bases will wholly and finally decide the only pending question arising from the War of the Pacific and with it the last of the boundary questions of the Republic.
The people of Chile, placing confidence in their destiny and concentrating [Page 801] their energies on work, note the utmost importance of this action which guarantees their safety and promotes their progress.
In thanking, by direction of His Excellency the President of the Republic and through Your Excellency, the President of the United States of America for his lofty and friendly cooperation towards removing the obstacle which for half a century has kept Chile and Peru apart, I avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the sentiments of my highest and most distinguished consideration.
- Copy handed to Assistant Secretary of State White by the Chilean Ambassador May 17, 1929.↩