723.2515/3452
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)
The Bolivian Minister, accompanied by Señor de la Barra, Secretary of the Bolivian Legation, called on Wednesday morning, July 3. He stated that he had received word a day or two ago that the clause in the Tacna-Arica arrangement which Bolivia had protested about [Page 808] has been inserted in a secret protocol attached to the Treaty. This seemed unbelievable but he this morning received a further cable from his Government, which he showed me, stating that the Lima newspaper Comercio published under a Santiago headline that the Chilean Senate had approved the secret protocol by twenty-three votes to sis with two abstentions. This, he said, proves the existence of the secret protocol.
I told the Minister that we had no information about the matter whatsoever; that this was the first we had heard of a secret protocol. I told him that we had received a cable yesterday47 which confirmed what appeared in the American press to the effect that the Chilean Senate had approved the Treaty by twenty-seven votes to two with two abstentions and that this morning we had a cable from Lima47 stating that last night the Peruvian Congress in joint session approved the Treaty with only one dissenting vote. Nothing was said about a secret protocol or the vote regarding it, nor had we information from any other source regarding such a secret agreement. I told the Minister that while this certainly was not conclusive, I did think that we were likely to hear should there be such an agreement. I briefly reviewed the position of this Government in the matter and read to him our note transmitting the President’s proposal to Chile and Peru which clearly set forth this Government’s attitude with respect to Bolivia. I told the Minister that even should his news be true I did not think that it altered Bolivia’s position in any way and that I thought the best course for Bolivia to follow was one of patience—to let Chile and Peru settle their dispute between themselves; for Bolivia to continue to endeavor to arrive at a settlement with Paraguay over the Chaco dispute, and the way would still be open for Bolivia to take up the question of a port at a later favorable opportunity, and that I thought it would be very unwise to inject this question into the situation at present.
The Minister stated that he fully concurred and that his Government was not contemplating any action. Some had advised protest before the League of Nations but he felt sure his Government would not do so. He stated that certain neighboring nations,… had tried to push Bolivia into making a protest or asking the neighboring countries to use their good offices to try to obtain a port for Bolivia, but that the Bolivian Government intended to follow the advice given by the Secretary of State and would not agitate this question now. The Bolivian Government merely wanted to advise this Government of the situation. I thanked the Minister for keeping the Department informed and told him I would immediately inform the Secretary of our conversation.
[Page 809]The Minister then stated that he had seen editorials in the Diario Ilustrado and the Merourio of Santiago, the most important papers there (the Edwards papers), stating that the clause, about the transfer of territory to a third nation is pure imagination on the part of Bolivia as no such clause was in the proposal presented to the Department of State by Chile and Peru which, in turn, had been transmitted to those countries as the President’s proposal without changing a comma. I told the Minister that it was correct that when the official draft was handed to us this clause was not in it and that it was because the Department, after hearing Bolivia’s complaint, had taken the matter up with both Chile and Peru that this clause had been omitted when the proposal was officially made.
The Minister stated that he would like to come in some other day and discuss with me, unofficially, the whole problem of the Pacific, not with a view to having this Government take any action, but just to give me the background from Bolivia’s point of view. I told him I should of course be glad to hear anything he had to say. The Minister expressed the hope that the Department would make inquiries of our Embassies in Santiago and Lima regarding the truth of the report that there is a secret protocol. I made no commitment on this point.