Peru and Chile
THE QUESTION OF TARAPACA
■■/■ }
b '
Memorial Address
to
President Harding
WASHINGTON, D. C.
1922
MEMORIAL ADDRESS TO
PRESIDENT HARDING
BY
THE NATIVES OF TARAPACA
F
3&f7. 3
To His Excellency the President of the United
States of America:
The undersigned Peruvian citizens, born in the Depart-
ment of Tarapaca, which is today under the control of Chile,
appear before your Excellency to respectfully set forth the
following:
We have no doubt that, in the conferences which at your
Excellency's initiative are soon to be held in Washington for
the purpose of settling the differences pending between Peru
and Chile since the peace of 1883, the Peruvian Government
will exact of that of Chile the devolution of the Department
of Tarapaca; and with the live earnest desire that the Peru-
vian demand be complied with and we the natives of Tarapaca
restored to the Peruvian home which we have never re-
nounced, nor shall ever be able to renounce, by this communi-
cation manifest our decided and unbreakable will cf reestab-
lishing our union with the Peruvian Motherland and hereto
annex a brief containing the reasons which we have for believ-
ing our decision just. All to the end of lending our most ve-
hement cooperation and support to the demand of the Peru-
vian Government.
In the brief just mentioned we have undertaken to prove
and believe to have proved :
First. That the cession of Tarapaca contained in the treaty
of peace of 1883 between Peru and Chile was made not only
without consulting the will of its inhabitants but against their
will which they of their own initiative and notwithstanding
the pressure of the Chilean arms expressed in the protest
which they then made and which is annexed to the aforemen-
tioned brief.
Second. That the natives of Tarapaca as well as the other
Peruvians defended our territory as far as it was humanly
possible, and were conquered only because, as all those who
have studied the war of 1879-1883, and especially the Chil-
eans themselves, acknowledge, victory was certain for the
belligerent which should have the control of the sea which
is the only means of communication and on which Chile's
superiority was from the beginning unquestionable; so that in
spite of the fruitless sacrifice of Peru's navy men the weak
Peruvian navy had practically disappeared at the end of six
months of hostilities, and the extensive Peruvian coast could
be attacked with impunity whence it was most convenient
for the invader.
Third. That Tarapaca not having been an object of the
dispute which caused the war, the peace with which the latter
ended cannot serve as a title to appropriate it under and con-
sequently the expropriation of this Peruvian Department by
Chile is a simple despoliation by force and arms which does
not close the war but prepares another.
Fourth. That notwithstanding the foregoing, and in spite
of the careful concealment made by Chile of its true aims in
the beginning, it is today indubitable that those aims were
always those of despoiling Peru of the territory of Tarapaca
to consummate the monopoly of the saltpetre and of the
guano of which it had already despoiled Bolivia, and that
for this reason the war had no admissible and confessable aim
in the light of the international law of South America.
Fifth. That in the case contemplated in the next preced-
ing paragraph the belligerent which wins the war has none
of the rights which the laws of war grant to the winner and
the loser has the right of recovering that which it has lost as
soon as the pressure of force cease.
Sixth. That the right to which the next two preceding
paragraphs refer would be lost to Peru if in the exercise of
full liberty and under the flag of that great country, it should
settle its affairs with Chile without including among them
that of Tarapaca, and we the natives of Tarapaca would lose
forever the never-abandoned hope of being restored to the
Peruvian Motherland.
Seventh. That the saltpetre and the guano of Tarapaca
are not a gift made by nature to the Peruvians, but the
necessary compensation of the sterility of the Peruvian coast
which can be cultivated, although never totally, only by
means of costly irrigations whereas the long coast of Chile is
all irrigated by rain. So that the guano and the saltpetre,
which ought to remedy or make up for the sterility of the
Peruvian coast serve Chile only to constitute what is in fact
a most abundant fund of war, of diplomacy and of propaganda
with which it has destroyed the equilibrium of the South
Pacific, has sowed perpetual intranquility in the South Amer-
ican continent and constantly causes discredit and ruin to
those who resist or refuse support to its imperialistic plans.
Eighth. That Chile has violated the treaty of peace which
contains the cession of Tarapaca in what was indispensable
condition of its execution by Peru and has caused the caducity
of said treaty and of the cession of Tarapaca even supposing
that the latter should have been valid originally.
Ninth. Finally, that if Tarapaca should remain definitively
annexed to Chile, Bolivia would lose forever the supreme
hope of having an outlet to the sea because the realization of
that hope is conceivable only through one of the ports to the
south of Tarapaca and to the north of Chile as it was, and
would result consequently in a gap in the present Chilean
territory which would be inadmissible for Chile. It is clear,
therefore, that the compressed and unrestrainable aspirations
of Bolivia would break their dikes to reach the sea sometime,
and that the conference which with such wholesome inten-
tions your Excellency has promoted would leave in the ground
the seed of a new South American conflagration.
Aware of the decisive influence which your Excellency's
ideas are bound to have in the decisions which the conference
adopt, we very respectfully fervently invoke the high spirit
of benevolence and of justice which has guided your Excel-
lency in the present occasion, and your natural earnest desire
that peace be definitively established in the South American
continent that you may deign lend attention to the annexed
brief and provide whatever you may deem necessary in order
that the reasons which it contains be duly appreciated at the
conference which is the cause of it.
Lima, April 6, 1922.
The signatures of the natives
of Tarapaca follow.
BRIEF ON THE JUSTICE AND CONVENIENCE OF
THE DEVOLUTION TO PERU OF THE DEPART-
MENT OF TARAPACA WHICH APPEARS CEDED
TO CHILE BY THE TREATY OF PEACE OF OC-
TOBER 20th, 1883.
I. The Department of Tarapaca which with its beds of salt-
petre and of guano constitutes an emporium of wealth was
ceded by Peru to Chile, the opinion of its inhabitants not
having been in any way consulted, by the treaty of peace of
October 20th, 1883. The inhabitants of Tarapaca at that
time numbered forty- two thousand and two (42,002) accord-
ing to the official census of Peru of 1876. Of them only
two thousand were foreigners. They, far from being con-
sulted, spontaneously made the protest a copy of which is
annexed hereto.
In the European continent, the change of nationality of a
populated country, although populated by a small number of
inhabitants as all the countries of South America, without
consulting the opinion of its inhabitants, would have been a
scandal. But in South America where the nationality of a
piece of territory has for the first time been seen to change,
the infraction of the then and now most common and ac-
cepted rules in the civilized world set a precedent which it
is necessary to erase from the annals of our international law.
After the cession, we, the natives of Tarapaca, have been
treated in the land of our birth as the natives of Tacna and of
Arica have been in theirs and we have finally been expelled
also or driven away as they have been.
The grave fact of our not having been consulted does not
need proofs of any kind. The inhabitants of Tarapaca deny
that they were consulted and therefore it is in no case up to
them to furnish proof but it is up to whomsoever should af-
firm the contrary to produce the respective proof and such
proof has neither been offered nor mentioned by anyone.
II. The inhabitants of Tarapaca, prior to protesting, de-
fended their own territory and the national territory as did
all the inhabitants of Peru, and it seems opportune to mani-
fest on this occasion why, in spite of their efforts, and of those
of all the inhabitants of the country, the war was lost and
the dismemberment of Peru consummated by Chile.
Among the communities of the every extensive coast of
Peru there was not at the time of the war with Chile, and
there is not today, any means of communication other than
the sea; so that the belligerent which dominated the sea had
the victory assured. And that belligerent was Chile which
prepared the despoliation of the Bolivian desert of Atacama
and the Peruvian Department of Tarapaca since the year
1842 when the saltpetre and the guano riches of the former
were discovered.
Many volumes might be filled with official Chilean docu-
ments and with publications of the Chilean press which evi-
dence the unanimous view in that country, as well as the
view of Peru, and in general of all those who have studied
the problem, to prove that on the west coast of South America
domination of the sea means victory. We shall limit our-
selves to a few citations.
Supposing the capture of the Huascar, the last ship of rela-
tive importance which Peru had, Santa Maria (President of
the Chilean Council of Ministers — and later of the Republic)
wrote to Sotomayor, Chief of Staff of the Chilean army, the
following :
"August 21, 1880. The disappearance of this ship
would permit us to move our army immediately and
then I would be of opinion — think it over well — that
we should direct our expedition on Lima and not on
Tarapaca. The moral effect which the capture of
Lima would produce after the annihilation of the
Peruvian maritime forces would be immense. You
will see by this that I change my former manner of
thinking but this change has its basis in that I con-
sider the Peruvian navy entirely overwhelmed."
Bulnes, "Guerra del Pacifico," Vol. 1, P. 508.
Bulnes, at page 458, Vol. I, referring to a resolution of
the Council of War to move on Arica, writes :
"A great event modified the resolution of the Coun-
cil of War: the capture of the Huascar which took
place on the 8th of this month, and which by itself
dispelled all the doubts . . . ."
At page 501 he adds the following:
"The capture of the Huascar awakened immense
interest in the country. The public instinct under-
stood the enormous importance of opening the doors
of Peru to the terrestrial invasion which would decide
the contest . . . ."
And he adds at page 504:
"In Peru the impression was much greater; first of
sorrow for the loss of its most beloved belonging.
Grau was its pride; the Huascar its glory! Then of
consternation at the impending invasion. The whole
coast was left at the mercy of the enemy. It could
disembark wheresoever it should wish . . . ."
As regards the navies of Peru and of Chile, the following
comparative statements concerning them at the time of the
declaration of the war which appear as much in the Peruvian
as in the Chilean histories prove the complete superiority of
Chile's navy and the impossibility of a definitive victory on
the sea for Peru.
TONNAGE OF THE NAVIES
Peru
Independencia 2004
Huascar 1130
Mancon 1034
Atahualpa 1034
Union 1150
Pilcomayo 600
6952
Chile
Cockrane 2032
Blanco 2032
Ohiggins 1101
Chacabuco 1101
Abatao 1051
Esmeralda 854
Magallanes 772
Covadonga 412
9353
SPEED AND ARMOUR OF THEIR SHIPS
Manco
4 mi., 10 in.
Atahualpa
Independencia,} n mj ^ in B1
Huascar
Cockrane, 13 mi., 13 in.
13 mi. 13 in.
anco,
ARMAMENT OF THEIR SHIPS
Peru Grooved Cannon
Chile
2
< 250
12
2
' 150
1
0
' 115
7
26
' 70
4
0
' 64
1
4
< 40
8
4
' 32
4
0
< 30
4
0
' 20
8
4
< 12
0
5
< 9
4
0
< 6
6
DATE OF CONSTRUCTION OF THEIR SHIPS
Independencia
Huascar
Manco
Atahualpa
1864
1874
Cockrane
Blanco
Ohiggins
Chacabuco
Biblioteca del Mercurio Peruano
Documentos Esenciales del Debate Peruano Chileno"
published by the Comite Patriotico Peruano,
Series A.— Vol. 2, Pp. 67 and 68.
10
III. The treaty of peace of October 20th, 1883, in its
second article, there being no prior nor subsequent explana-
tion of or reference to the subject matter of this article, reads
as follows:
"Article 2. The Republic of Peru cedes to the Re-
public of Chile, perpetually and unconditionally, the
territory of the literal province of Tarapaca, the
boundaries of which are: on the north, the ravine and
river Camarones; en the south the ravine and river
Loa; on the east, the Republic of Bolivia and on the
west the Pacific Ocean."
When Chile declared war on Peru on the 5th of April,
1879, Minister Fierro alleged, in his manifesto to the neutral
powers, as the only cause of the war the execution by Peru
and Bolivia of the secret treaty of 1873, basing his allegation
on the fact that, Bolivia having declared war on Chile be-
cause Chile (without having declared it as it was its duty
to do) had occupied Bolivian territory, Peru being the ally
of Bolivia ought to be reputed an enemy of Chile also and
besides disloyal to Chile because of having kept the treaty
secret while appearing as a neutral and friend of Chile and
as a mediator between it and Bolivia. But the manifesto
does not contain a word about Tarapaca although it does not
fail to express hateful sentiments against Peru on account of
certain internal administration measures which the latter
took in the saltpetre fields of that territory and which Chile
believed prejudicial to Chilean interests the importance of
which the minister exaggerated immeasureably.
War is certainly, or was until the last European conflict, a
licit manner of determining disputes between nations in the
absence of any other means of doing so. But war has never
been considered, at least among Christian people, during
modern times and above all in America, as a means of appro-
priating territories and even property of any other kind not
11
related to the causes of the war itself. So that if a territory
which was never in dispute, and especially if it contains
riches as stupendous as does Tarapaca, is ceded, such cession
has no legitimate cause ; it is simply a despoliation by force
and arms which the vanquished consent to because he cannot
repel the force which weighs down upon him. And as no
despoliation, and especially those effected by force, gives title
to the things thus taken, it seems evident that Chile has no
title to the province of Tarapaca. Consequently Peru has
an indisputable title to that province and may exercise it by
force whenever it be strong enough to defeat Chile or by
means of pacific action founded on reason and on mutual
convenience to which the actual tendencies of humanity which
the Government of that great Republic so brilliantly personi-
fies give a power which they did not formerly have.
War taking the place of a tribunal of last resort to deter-
mine to whom belongs the object of a dispute between two
or more states is already sufficiently barbarous and horrible
to suppose that its effects may be extended to objects which
had no relation with it, thus retrograding to the times when
the conqueror was the owner of all that belonged to the con-
quered including honor, liberty and life.
Even in Europe composed of different races which came
into contact with each other through invasion and war, whose
organization was originally founded on rules of individual and
absolute predominance and whose territories are far from be-
ing sufficiently extensive not to inspire covetousness, the ap-
propriation of another's property among nations may be con-
sidered definitely abolished.
The cession of Alsace and Lorraine offers in Europe the
last example of the past barbarousness and it is certain that
the world would not permit today that such an example should
be repeated nor would it have been possible to found a League
of Nations if it should subsist.
12
How much more must it be so in South America where the
states were born to the independent life under the ideas of the
Christian civilization of the ninteenth century.
There are further in the case of Tarapaca compared with
that of Alsace and Lorraine these differences which favor
Peru: Alsace and Lorraine once belonged to the Germanic
community, Chile certainly was once a dependency of Peru
but Peru was never part of Chile. The two states were not
even boundary neighbors. Between the river Loa, the south-
ern boundary of Peru and of the Department of Tarapaca,
and the river Paposo, northern boundary of Chile, there is
the entire Bolivian desert enclosed by its sea and its moun-
tains, so that Chile has had to take a leap of eighty leagues to
place its claw on the coveted Peruvian prey, a prey which is
not only a territory susceptible of being made productive
with the money and work of the conqueror but a treasure in
itself immense, indispensable for Peru as we shall hereinafter
show and with which Chile passed instantaneously, the only
example in history, from the most modest sphere to the most
ostentatious opulence.
The Chileans also know what they were doing when, while
directing their arms on Tarapaca in the year 1879, they were
not content with concealing their purposes but protested once
and again that they were not nor could be those of conquest.
The same manifesto of Minister Fierro as to the justificative
causes of the war to which we have referred proves this affir-
mation.
"In no emergency," says the Minister, "was it possible to
anticipate that Chile or any other nation could threaten the
integrity of the Bolivian territory or the never-disputed
sovereignty of Peru within its acknowledged boundaries."
By this Chile wished to express the thought that the conquest
(which was precisely what it was performing) was, in its
opinion a thing so excessively monstrous that no one could
13
imagine it and that it could not therefore have been the cause
of the treaty of alliance of 1873 between Peru and Bolivia.
Because Chile was trembling at the idea of an intervention
by the United States or by Europe and wished to prevent it
with the boldest protests against the conquest to which never-
theless it rapidly was tending.
The idea expressed by the Chilean Minister in the fore-
going quotation explains it all. Peru and Bolivia seeing in
the reality of the invasions of the Bolivian desert the begin-
ning of the conquest were not sufficiently alarmed and lim-
ited themselves to a semi-platonic alliance which was not even
completed with the projected concurrence of the Argentine
Republic and which was in fact abandoned, as all other de-
fense was forgotten, when Chile apparently settled with
Bolivia by means of the boundary treaty of 1874 by which
nothing better was accomplished than by that of 1866 whence
the great dispute of those times had originated, and which
furnished immediate pretext for the invasion of the entire
Bolivian desert.
This idea explains also that all the other states of America
should not have understood the situation in time to check
the belligerent action of Chile in its inception and should
have let things advance until Chile took the saltpetre and
guano deposits of Tarapaca, immediately undertook the ex-
ploitation of them and acquired powerful elements of re-
sistance against the intervention of any state of South
America.
It is also necessary to state here how this Republic so young
and so poor could do things so surprising and so bold with a
method and perserverance which are conceivable only under
the direction of an intelligence and an arm provided with the
most absolute power.
But the fact is that it is an oligarchy, compact and closed,
that governs in Chile under the forms of a democratic re-
14
public, and has always directed its interior and exterior
policy, doing so above all for the personal benefit of its mem-
bers and generally with disregard of the inferior races of
semi-civilized rapacious and sanguinary Indians and half-
breeds which make up the great mass of its population.
The above stated circumstance is sufficient to render the
Chilean Republic a machinery of easy and energetic move-
ments in the service of far-reaching, firm and constant pur-
poses. It is as dangerous in South America as was the Kai-
ser's Germany in Europe and even much more dangerous:
First, because it is sufficiently separated from the rest of the
world to withhold from the latter's eyes, at least in the be-
ginning, the preparation and execution of its purposes. Sec-
ond, because the dominant caste being separated from the
lower masses the former looks upon the blood of the latter
with less attachment and solicitude, and because the char-
acter of the lower masses makes them very appropriate for
the war of destruction and very easy to control at the expense
of the enemy by permitting them to satisfy their brutal in-
stincts. The excesses of all kinds committed against the
defenseless Peru after the disappearance of its navy are un-
equivocal proof of what we have just expressed no less than
the persistence in the purpose of the upper classes regarding
the saltpetre and guano of Bolivia and of Peru. This leads
us to the demonstration that in spite of Minister Fierro's
manifesto it was the riches of Tarapaca that caused the war
against Peru.
IV. When President Bulnes, acquainted with the discov-
ery of guano and saltpetre to the north of the twenty-fourth
degree where Bolivia's ownership of the desert was unques-
tionable, proposed to the Chilean Congress the adoption of a
law which fixed the northern boundary of Chile at the twenty-
third degree, advancing towards the north more than two
geographical degrees above the river Paposo up to that time
15
the unquestionable boundary of Chile acknowledged as such
in its Constitution, Congress adopted that law without dis-
cussion and unanimously, that law which, applied by the
Chilean government with care, cunning and perseverance
never before seen, produced in the end the catastrophe of 1879
which annihilated the economic forces of Peru, deprived
Bolivia of its sea coast and converted Chile from the poorest
nation of the South Pacific into the wealthiest of the republics
of that region.
Don Gonzalo Bulnes, son of the Chilean President of 1842,
and historian of the War of the Pacific relates as follows the
remotest origin of the terrible drama:
"The new republics adopted as a common basis for
the demarcation of their boundaries the administrative
boundary which they had at the moment of their
separation from Spain. This was called the 'uti pos-
sidetis of 1810' and was thought of largely to prevent
European nations from pretending to set foot on
America alleging that between the territory of one
nation and that of another there were vacant lands
subject to occupation as res nullius."
"The uti possidetis of 1810 was the juridical be-
ginning of the territorial demarcation among the
American states." •
"Bulnes* government has the merit of having en-
deavored to establish the boundaries of the republic
on the north and south before any of the other govern-
ments of America endeavored to establish theirs, thus
preparing with rare foresight for the Chilean race of
the future a territory adequate for its ambitions of
work and of expansion."
"Within one year, between 1842 and 1843, he fixed
the northern boundary of the country at the Mejil-
lones parallel, and on the south at the Strait of Magel-
lan founding a colony which was then named Fuerte
Bulnes today Punta Arenas."
"This book is not concerned with what regards the
Strait. It is concerned only with that which refers
16
to the northern domain up to Mejillones because of
its having been the starting point of the boundary dis-
pute between Chile and Bolivia, the seed of the bloody
and prolonged struggle which I propose to narrate."
"Great deposits of guano were discovered in Peru
in 1842 and, although the enormous importance which
this fertilizer came to acquire as regards the public
wealth of this country could not then be foreseen,
sufficient was known to appreciate it as a source of fis-
cal wealth. The government of Chile sent a com-
mission to explore the coasts of the northern part of
the country up to the Mejillones parallel for the pur-
pose of ascertaining whether or not similar deposits
existed on them. The report was not very favorable.
The guano found was neither abundant nor of high
quality. Bulnes nevertheless took that examination
as a basis to send a message to Congress proposing to
it a project of law which declared the guano deposits
situated to the south of the twenty-third parallel the
property of the republic by reason of their being within
the boundaries of its territory."
"The message read as follows :"
"Fellow citizens of the Senate and of the Chamber
of Deputies:"
"The usefulness of the substance called guano which
since time immemorial is used as a fertilizer in the cul-
tivation of the soil on the coast of Peru being ac-
knowledged in Europe, I considered it necessary to
send an exploring commission to examine the coast
comprised between the port of Coquimbo and the bluff
of Mejillones for the purpose of finding out whether
or not any guano deposits existed within the territory
of the republic the exploitation of which might supply
a new source of income to the public treasury, and,
although the result of the expedition did not fully
meet the hopes which had been conceived, guano was
nevertheless found, in more or less abundant quanti-
ties according to the nature of the places at which
these deposits are found, at sixteen points of the coast
and neighboring islands, from 29'35" to 23'6" south
latitude."
17
"Far from presuming, after the examination made
that the Chilean guano deposits may have the import-
ance attributed to those of Peru, I am inclined to be-
lieve that the return that may be derived from them
shall be comparatively small but this would not excuse
that their exploitation should be permitted to be free
in favor of foreign commerce depriving the national
treasury of a resource which, without encumbrance on
the people, would serve as a subsidiary fund to attend
to so many objects of common utility which need ef-
ficient protection."
"This important document carries the signatures of
President Don Manuel Bulnes and of the Secretary of
the Treasury (Ministro de Hacienda) Don Manuel
Renjifo."
"Both Chambers approved unanimously that which
this message indicated and the project was promul-
gated as law in October 1842. That the northern
boundary of the republic was the Bay of Mejillones
was sanctioned by the Executive and by Congress un-
der the form of an economic measure." Bulnes,
"Guerra del Pacifico" Vol. I, Pages 12, 13, 14.
The foregoing proves that Chile since the year 1842 had
the purpose of enriching itself by the appropriation of the
guano and saltpetre producing territories and that to put it
into practice it did not retreat before the unequivocal provi-
sions of its constitution which fixed its boundary precisely at
the southern beginning of those territories nor before the con-
flict with Bolivia which the law of the year above mentioned
could create and in fact did create. The foregoing also
proves that with the indubitable object of concealing the
transcendence of that law it was proposed to the Chambers
as a simple economic measure and adopted by them as such
without discussion that we know of and unanimously.
This and the fact that Chile's activities regarding the salt-
petres and guanos did not cease until it obtained the absolute
domination of them all, Bolivian as well as Peruvian, cannot
leave doubt in any impartial mind that the cause of the war
was the Chilean purpose of appropriating the province of
Tarapaca and that the manifesto of Minister Fierro, in so far
as it states that the cause of the war was the secret treaty of
alliance between Bolivia and Peru executed in 1873, was only
a recourse resorted to by the public men of Chile in the
absence of all serious pretext for carrying it on at the moment
when they thought that the most propitious occasion presented
itself for accomplishing the long incubated project of Presi-
dent of Bulnes of the year 1842.
It would be very long and foreign to the purpose of this
document to demonstrate that the alliance between Peru and
Bolivia of 1873 cannot be the cause of the war declared by
Chile on the former of these two countries. It is sufficient
for our purpose to demonstrate in a direct manner that it was
the saltpetre of Tarapaca that was the only cause which
induced Chile to declare this war, and in the event that any-
one should believe that what has heretofore been stated is not
sufficient for that purpose, we add the following the proba-
tory force of which is beyond discussion :
''The war with Bolivia was for this reason a simple
question of time from the time when the explorer
Cangalla found the first silver ore in the hills of Cara-
coles (of the desert of Atacama), as the war with
Peru would have to be inevitable and analogous from
the time when the railroad and saltpetre excavation
attracted to the territory of that republic, as a human
avalanche, an active, vigorous and intelligent race
which was to meet face to face an other race lazy,
soft and demoralized by the climate and by idleness."
Vicuna Mackena "Campafia de Tarapaca" P. 33.
Balmaceda, Secretary of State, in the year 1882 and later
president of Chile, said in the Chamber of Deputies:
"Historical, legendary, geographical and industrial
reasons made it necessary to carry the war on to its last
19
extreme. On the Pacific coast of South America
there are but two centres of action and progress : Lima
and Callao: Santiago and Valparaiso. It is necessary
that one of these centres succumb in order that the
other may rise. For our part we need Tarapaca as a
source of wealth and Arica as an advanced point on
the coast."
Paz Soldan Carlos, "La cuestion de Tacna v
Arica," P. 28.
In a circular to the diplomatic agents of Chile, Balmaceda
was still more explicit:
"The saltpetre territory of Antofagasta and the
saltpetre territory of Tarapaca were the real and di-
rect cause of the war. To return to the enemy the
cause itself of the war after our triumphs and after the
occupation of those territories would have been an
unjustifiable imprevision and an absolute lack of the
knowledge which matters of state suppose." Ibidem,
Page 29.
Vial Solar referring to the terms of the peace says:
"In clearer terms and according to this criterion,
Peru submitting to the law of the situation ought
to deliver to Chile those portions of territory
which had been the true and efficient cause of the
war and to pay besides an indemnity in money
which would prevent for long years the nourish-
ment of illusions of revenge by its restless poli-
ticians."
VJal Solar, "Paginas Diplomaticas" P. 7.
The following is copied from the Biblioteca del Mercurio
Peruano's "Documentos Esenciales del Debate Peruano-
Chileno" Series A, Vol. 2:
"D. 33. — The conquest confessed in the Chilean
Chamber."
"Mr. Arteaga A. (don D.) requests the privilege
of speaking for the purpose of proposing to the
20
Chamber a project of law in his opinion very well
founded and which counts with the approval of the
entire country."
"Our territory has extended to the seventeenth
degree thanks to the brave effort of our valiant
army."
"Our poor 'rotos' have gone to take possession
of that territory to which they have given life with
their arms and with their efforts at the same time
that our capitalists have developed industry there."
"In view of this and other considerations he
proposes the following:"
"Project of resolution. — The Chamber of Depu-
ties would see with pleasure that His Excellency the
President of the republic should submit to Congress
a project of law to definitively incorporate in the
territory of the republic the regions CONQUERED
and occupied by the arms of Chile in the present
war, said regions remaining subject to the civil,
political and administrative legislation of Chile."
"Mr. Walker Martinez (don C.) believes the idea
proposed by Mr. Arteaga very acceptable and very
valiant and that it honors the country."
"The administrative and jurisdictional measures
would be settled by the indication of the honorable
deputy."
"Mr. Balmaceda (don J. M.) confesses that he
agrees with the honorable Mr. Arteaga on every-
thing that may refer to the RIGHT OF CON-
QUEST which aids Chile: but it seems to him that
this is not the opportune hour to proceed to the
declaration which His Excellency requests. For
that reason he will deny him his vote."
"(Session of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile
of the 5th of January, 1880)."
The events to which we have referred in connection with
the discovery of the guano and saltpetre in the Bolivian de-
sert ; the long controversy with Bolivia which ended in the
year 1866 when Chile wrested from an insane dictator of
Bolivia the treaty of that year and proposed to help him to
21
conquer the southern provinces of Peru in exchange for the
whole desert of Atacama; the secret negotiations of Chile
for an alliance with Ecuador and against Peru its ally at the
time of the war against Spain; the treaty of 1874 which far
from remedying the faults of that of the year 1866 placed
new obstacles in Bolivia's way, and finally the futile pretexts
based on this treaty of 1874 which Chile alleged to take pos-
session of the entire desert of Atacama without declaration of
war and disregarding the arbitration agreed upon with Boli-
via, thus constituting itself by one step the boundary neigh-
bor of Peru and thereupon calling the latter country to ac-
count and declaring the war for the supposed offense of the
defensive alliance of the year 1873 with Bolivia entered into
to prevent the appropriation of the saltpetre of both by Chile,
this appropriation being precisely the result of that war which
the latter country imposed upon them: all this constitutes a
very logical association of links in the long chain of incidents
of all kinds brought about by Chile to make both ends meet,
these ends being the Chilean law of the year 1842 and the
despoliation of the saltpetre deposits of Peru and of Bolivia
in the war of 1879 to 1883. To this is added the most elo-
quent circumstance as regards Chilean psychology, that both
measures were unanimously approved by the Chilean Cham-
bers.
The condition which the Chilean Treasury had reached in
1879 as a result of its immeasurable war preparations did not
permit delay in the realization of the war enterprise which
the Chilean statesmen had in view and this determined the
outbreak in that year of the so long meditated war.
The obligations arising from the Chilean debt, which up
to the year 1842 had not been fulfilled with regularity, were
henceforth and until the declaration of war on Peru fulfilled
with noteworthy punctuality, not because Chile had the re-
sources for that purpose but because it had its aim fixed on
22
the great enterprise which it had undertaken. Each time
that its resources were lacking and that there was danger
of the non-fulfillment of the obligations arising from a loan,
it negotiated another.
Finally the time arrived when it was not possible to con-
tinue securing loans for the purpose of performing the obliga-
tions arising from other loans, and this was undoubtedly one
of the capital reasons that caused the war to break out when
in any other country the result of checking it would have
been produced. But in Chile the war was the industry itself
and it was necessary to make it produce.
We copy from Bulnes, Vol. 1, P. 184.
"The situation of the treasury was extremely
grave, the country was undergoing a very grave
fiscal and particular crisis."
" Paper had been established during the preceding
year as compulsory currency under the form of in-
convertible bank bill and the weight of our money
was worth thirty pennies."
"The budget of the nation's expenses fluctuated
in the neighborhood of twenty-one million pesos
and the revenues did not reach more than seven-
teen million leaving a deficit equivalent to almost
twenty-five percent of the income which was liqui-
dated by means of loans. For the first time since
1843 when the fulfillment of the obligation arising
from the external debt became regular, in 1878 Chile
found itself in serious difficulties to effect the pay-
ment of interests in Europe. In 1877 the loan to
cover the budget amounted to five million pesos,
in 1878 to four million, and there was a new deficit
in the appropriations of the Secretary of the
Treasury (Ministro de Hacienda) of almost one
million pesos more."
At page 377 of the same volume:
"The General made the error of causing it to be
believed that everything was ready for the cam-
23
paign when it was not. That error resulted from
his not having studied sufficiently the available
resources nor the preparations which were neces-
sary. Proceeding thus he encouraged illusions
which could not be realized and which produced a
disillusionment painful in proportion to the desire
of finishing an enterprise which was exhausting the
resources of the country. In this contrast of hopes
and disillusionments is found one of the causes of
the disagreement which existed between the Gov-
ernment and him."
At pages 450 and 451 of the same volume:
"The maintenance and payment of a large army
distributed throughout the country with a powerful
nucleus at a place unprovided with supplies such as
Antofagasta and the maintenance and payment of a
navy in action were greater than the economic
forces of the republic. The fiscal resources,
although invested with scrupulous economy became
insufficient to attend to the war."
"Matte, the Secretary of the Treasury (Ministro
de Hacienda), on whom falls the greater part of
the honor of this parsimonious investment of the
fiscal revenues, was terrified at the prospect of the
prolongation of the war, and it is probable that his
influence should have determined the change of
opinion which is observed in the Ministry during
the first fortnight of September when the navy was
ready to sail from Valparaiso. Matte expressed
himself thus:
"To Sotomayor; September 9. As the matter of
revenues is that which is most closely related to the
war, I wish to express to you my opinion of the
situation. As you know we have a fiscal issue of
twelve thousand million pesos already authorized.
The market circulation cannot demand a sum much
greater than that. When the last six millions be
exhausted it shall be necessary to resort to other
means different from those which we have hitherto
employed, means which will of course be infinitely
24
more painful for the country. Hence the necessity
of giving the most vigorous impulse to the operations
of the war. In my judgment it is indispensable to
prepare with the greatest rapidity in all the ele-
ments of army mobilization in order to operate on
land immediately whether or not the navy obtain
the results which we all expect. I would not be so
concerned as to the rapidity with which it is
necessary to proceed if it were not that the country
has not the resources to sustain a prolonged war."
"September 26th. I have had, he said to him in
another letter, the pleasure of receiving your
esteemed letter in which you state that you share
actively the idea that agitates us all and especially
me, namely, that of finding a denouement as rapid
as happy. I say especially me because if we do
not soon arrive at the end we shall not have any
gold which is already gone, nor silver which has
already been put on the way, nor paper which is
about to be exhausted.
At page 452:
"Santa Maria thought in the same manner:
"September 19. Two words about our purposes
which without any discrepancy are your own. We
wish that the army be completely ready to move so
that, whether the Peruvian ships be beaten or
whether they conceal themselves and place them-
selves in a situation where they cannot be pursued,
our soldiers may be able to dash on Tarapaca."
At pages 505 and 506:
"The expeditionary army had embarked on
October 28th."
"This was a solemn day for the national patriot-
ism. The heart of three million Chileans vibrated
in unison with that chosen portion of them which
was going to cement the future of Chile on the
sacrifice and on the victory."
At page 521 we find Sotomayor's proclamation:
"You will return he said to them with the con-
sciousness, etc., of having opened a new era of
25
national history placing the peace, the industry and
the prosperity of the Fatherland on broad and in-
superable basis."
At page 275:
"After the battle of Tarapaca the General in
Chief sent military detachments to several points
in the territory to gather up the arms of those
scattered and fugitive to prevent small groups of
armed men from forming which would obstruct the
work on the saltpetre deposits which were the
nation's main source of revenue for the continua-
tion of the war."
The straits of the Chilean treasury are an explanation of
the vehemence displayed by Chile to take possession of Tara-
paca. But they are not the only one nor tell of the hatred
and unnecessary cruelty with which the war was carried on.
The principal explanation lies in the individual interest
which a large number of important Chileans and especially
high public functionaries among whom there were legislators
and ministers had in the matter. We limit ourselves in this
•connection to transcribe the following note from page 87 of
the history of the war by the Peruvian writer Paz Soldan:
"We have before us the tenth Report of the Salt-
petres and Railway Company of Antofagasta
corresponding to the semester running from the
first of January to the first of June 1877."
"In it we find the following list of the share-
holders of said company inserted at page 25."
"The underlined names are those of Chilean
public men now in official positions."
"First Issue A."
"Mr. Jose Basterrica — Mrs. Mariana Brown de
Ossa — Mr. Evaristo del Campo — Mr. Maximo del
Campo — Enrique Cood — Augustin Edwards — Esco-
bar y Ca — Guillermo Gibbs y Ca — Eliodoro Gormaz —
Mauricio J. Garces — Ramon Guerrero — Jorje 2d
26
Huneus — Jorje Hicks — Ambrosio Olives — Fran-
cisco Puelma — Federico Puelma — Luis Pereira —
Santiago Prado — Julian Riesco — M. Subercas-
seaux — Cornelio Saavedra (Secretary of War)
(Ministro de la Guerra) Rafael Sotomayor — Miguel
Jose Urmeneta — Francisco J. Vergara — Jose
Eugenio Vergara — Antonio Verax — Miguel A.
Varas — Santiago J. Velazquez — Julio Zegers (Secre-
tary of Justice) (Ministro dejusticia) — Enrique J.
Walker."
"Second Issue B."
"Antonio Domingo Bordes — Ernesto Decombe —
Escobar y Ca — Augustin Edwards — L. C. Gal-
lagher— Guillermo Gibbs y Ca — Eliodoro Gormaz — J.
D. Hunter — C. S. Miller — Luis Pereira — Uldericio
Prado — Valentin Saldias — Miguel Saldias — Fede-
rico Varela — Enrique J. Walker."
"It is a fact that Mr. Alejandro Fierro, Secretary
of State (Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores) was
one of the shareholders as is evidenced by the
following document published in the Official Daily
of Santiago:"
"SUMMONS:— In the suit by the sindic of the
Chacabuco de Caracoles against don Alejandro
Fierro to enforce the latter's liability resulting from
the assignment made by him of certain shares of
stock, action which is now before the judge of first
instance don Javier Arlegui Rodriguez, the Most
Illustrious Court of Appeals, second part, has on the
ninth instant provided as follows: the papers on
file having been seen: Don Alejandro Fierro being
absent from the country and don Gregorio Munoz
named his attorney in fact at pages 143, not having
appeared for him, serve a summons on the afore-
mentioned Gregorio Munoz by means of edicts
and advertisements in the daily newspapers and,
if he do not appear within ten days, communicate
whatever may be provided in this action to the
defender of absent parties as the representative of
don Alejandro Fierro. The decision of fifth instant
at pages 149 which has been appealed from is
27
affirmed in so far as not contrary to this order. Sub-
stitute the paper and let this be returned. — Abalos —
Prats. — Gandarillas."
"This notice is given for the legal effects: it being
stated that the clerk of the case is don Jose Maria
Guzman."
"The foregoing document lends itself to very
grave and sad reflections."
"The Secretary of State (Ministro de Relaciones
Exteriores) who has pushed Chile into the war against
Peru and Bolivia to defend the miners of Anto-
fagasta and Caracoles is now found to be involved
in a liability action; he absents himself to carry out
a diplomatic mission in the Argentine Republic,
according to what he says, while the court officers
diligently search for him; his attorney in fact don
Gregorio Munoz conceals himself, edicts and
advertisements are published in the Chilean
dailies, including the Official Daily, and it is ordered
that whatever may be provided by the court be
communicated to the defender of absent parties in
view of the fact that neither don Alejandro Fierro
nor his attorney in fact appeared to defend the
action on the assignment."
"Behold here then the thread of a pecuniary en-
tanglement and of a diplomatic scandal which in-
dubitably exhibits the causes of the present war in all
their nudity."
"It is indubitable also that the greater part of the
private shares of stock have been already bought by
the house of Gibbs there remaining in Chilean hands
only those of the Ministers, Senators, Deputies and
other personalities of official rank."
Finally, there enters as a principal factor in the conditions
of the war which we have pointed out, Chile's fear that the
United States or the great European powers should inter-
vene in it and should wrest from it the coveted prey. Its sit-
uation was truly unsustainable before a more or less ener-
getic intervention because it was neither sufficiently powerful
28
to resist nor could find support in justice for it was outside
of all the rules of international law.
The war had in fact ended with the capture of the Huas-
car : because Peru was absolutely vanquished and at the mercy
of Chile and the latter could impose on it all the conditions
of the conqueror without needing to exert any effort; because
in the case of an unlikely resistance by Peru it was sufficient
for Chile to blockade all its coast which not only deprived
Peru of all its resources but filled Chile's purse. The Chil-
eans without any discrepancy have acknowledged this fact am-
ply confirming the theory already set forth that whomsoever
possesses the sea that bathes the coasts of the two belligerent
countries has the war won.
Why then did Chile not impose peace and why instead did
it undertake a terrestrial campaign which would sprinkle
with the blood of its own sons and with that of the Peruvians
besides, the practically defenseless land of the latter?
It was precisely at that time that the first mediation of the
functionaries of the United States took place. That media-
tion is related in all its details by the same Chilean historian
Bulnes at page 423 of Vol. I and the result of it was that
which he expresses in the following paragraph at page 425 :
"The president and the cabinet accepted the pro-
posal regarding Bolivia but not so Peru and the first
diplomatic step of the North American Secretary of
State terminated. The text of the Chilean reply
which was drawn up by Varas reads as follows:
"Regarding the matters with Peru, although the
bases proposed correspond to a great extent to the ob-
ject of the war, the disloyal conduct of Peru or of its
government in preparing for the war at the same
time that it gave Chile signs of friendly and pacific
sentiments and in appearing as a mediator when it was
bound by a secret treaty of alliance with Bolivia, our
enemy at that time, furnishes just motives to the
29
country and to the government for not considering
themselves satisfied with the solution of our present
questions by means of arbitration and to exact securi-
ties that in the future Peru will not execute treaties
such as that of February 1873 which it has main-
tained secret during six years awaiting doubtless the
occasion of being our aggressor to advantage — a treaty
which strictly considered did not bind it to make
war — if we do not wish to run the serious risk of re-
maining subject to a permanent threat to our exter-
nal security and to being always prepared to repel it."
The pretexts of Minister Varas to practically reject the
mediation as regards Peru, he having accepted it as regards
Bolivia which country in the opinion of Chile, had provoked
the war, cannot naturally be taken seriously. The true ex-
planation of this is that Chile was still concealing that it had
already obtained from Bolivia all that it had desired, that is,
the entire desert of Atacama with all its riches while Peru
still possessed the province of Tarapaca with its riches. And
this was Chile's principal objective.
It was necessary, against wind and tide, to take Tarapaca
within the least possible time and to check in the meantime
all intervention until Chile should be able to allege as a title,
possession and the blood of its sons shed to obtain it.
The Chilean army, therefore, embarked at Antofagasta and
landed at Pisagua notwithstanding the heroic opposition of
the small Peruvian garrison; it thus cut Peru's line of de-
fense and thereupon marched on the bulk of the Peruvian
army of Tarapaca which was reduced in numbers by the
absence of three thousand Bolivians whom President Daza
caused to counter-march at the best opportunity so that they
should not take part in the battle. The Peruvian army was
moreover depressed and demoralized by volleys fired on it
from the rear by Bolivian troops which took part in the bat-
30
tie and by the abandonment of the field by those same Bolivian
troops which did not stop until they reached Bolivia.
No one denies these facts, they have not been satisfactorily
explained, and it is natural that, in the absence of such ex-
planation, they be connected with the repeated negotiations
of Chilean agents with Bolivian chiefs to separate Bolivia
from the alliance in consideration of helping it to conquer
Tacna and Arica. The "War of the Pacific" by the Chilean
historian Bulnes, Vol. I, Pp. 226, 329, 598, 627, 629, 638
and 720, may be consulted in this regard.
After the battle of San Francisco or of Dolores to which
we have already referred, Tarapaca remained under the con-
trol of Chile in spite of the Peruvian victory in the battle of
that name (Tarapaca) obtained by part of the reorganized
remains of the Peruvian army which had to go immediately
to join the Peruvian forces which later took part in the battle
of Tacna.
Once the Chilean army was in possession of Tarapaca, no
one in Chile any longer concealed which had been the object
of the war nor the unspeakable joy that having reached the
goal caused to all Chileans.
The Chilean army already counting on the triumph at the
time of leaving Antofagasta, the army's Chief of Staff thus
proclaimed it:
"You will return with the consciousness of having
opened a new era of the national history placing the
peace, the industry and the prosperity of the Father-
land on broad and insuperable basis." Bulnes "Guer-
ra del Pacifico" Vol. I, P. 521.
After the battle of Dolores, the historian Bulnes writes in
Vol. I, P. 640 of the "Guerra del Pacifico":
"The campaign of Tarapaca was virtually termi-
nated because although it is true that a heroic and un-
fortunate event (the battle of Tarapaca) clouded its
31
brilliant aspect, in fact the occupant, the traditional
lord of that territory, abandoned it forever, and a new
owner will cover it henceforth with its sword and
with its law."
The same Bulnes in Vol. I of the aforesaid work at page
34, referring to the grudges between the chiefs and the gov-
ernment when the campaign on Arica was being effected,
writes :
"The campaign moved in this atmosphere."
"With this human mud was made the gold dust of
the war of the Pacific."
And in the conferences of the same port of Arica on board
the Lackawanna, the Chilean plenipotentiaries dared to pre-
sent, without circumlocutions of any sort and with the char-
acter of ultimatum, the cession of Tarapaca as principal con-
dition of the peace.
Tarapaca was therefore unquestionably the object of the
war declared by Chile on Peru under the futile pretext of a
secret treaty of alliance with Bolivia which treaty Chile knew
immediately after its execution and possibly even before then ;
a treaty which had for its object precisely to protect the allies
against the conquest of its saltpetre lands which they saw in
the distance and which was now an indubitable fact.
In any case, either the motive of the war was other than
the appropriation of Tarapaca or it was its appropriation. If
the former, the cession of Tarapaca contained in the treaty
of peace is not explainable nor can be the termination of the
war and is consequently a cession without cause and considera-
tion and as a result does not bind Peru. If the latter, the war
had an object which in the Chilean opinion is not only unjust
but inconfessable and doubtless subject to the opposition of
the whole world and especially of America.
In any case, the final result is that the cession of Tarapaca
included in the treaty of peace of 1883 does not bind Peru
and is perfectly null.
32
"War is just when international law authorizes re-
course to arms; unjust when it is contrary to the prin-
ciples of that law.
"This principle is not only a rule of morals but a
true principle of law. It has not it is true great prac-
tical value at present because each one of the parties
affrms the justice of its cause and there is no judge to
decide as to the value of their assertions. Neverthe-
less that distinction between the law and morals has
already some effects today, especially concerning the
obligations of allies and the intervention of neutral
powers; the allies owe their cooperation when the
war is just; third parties are entitled to intervene
when the war is iniquitous." Bluntschli "Droit In-
ternational Codifie" P. 301.
In the present case, strange to say, the difficulty which
Bluntschli points out in connection with the application of
the principle that the unjust war ought not to produce effect
and may be the motive of intervention, does not exist be-
cause according to Chilean criterion itself the cause of the
war of 1879 was not only unjust but inconfessable.
V. The treaty of peace does not therefore bind Peru and
we hope that it will not either implicitly or explicitly on any
account renounce the expectations which the foregoing con-
siderations hold open for it.
Suffice it to say at present that the object of the war having
been the conquest, unknown in the South American law,
absolutely unfounded and unconfessed by Chile, the latter
has none of the rights which victory gives in war the injus-
tice of which is not obviously demonstrated as in the present
case and, on the contrary, is liable for all the damages which
it caused Peru with it.
The possession of Tarapaca constituted the second great
stage of the War, and this time as the first, when Peru lost
the Huascar which was its only war weapon worthy of being
taken into consideration, it was natural to expect that the
33
Chilean invasion would cease. But the violation of justice
has its unbreakable logic.
Chile did not feel secure in Tarapaca. It had the con-
sciousness of its injustice and this inspired it with two pur-
poses instead of one which it had had before : that of pressing
Peru in order that the latter might give it a title, which
Chile was absolutely lacking, with which to legitimize in
some way the possession of Tarapaca, and that of reducing
Peru to the most complete impotency possible in order that it
should not later rise against Chile, aroused by the frightful
injustice of which the latter had made it a victim. To effect
these purposes it conceived the most cruel of wars of
destruction that has been witnessed in modern times be-
tween two Christian countries they being, besides, of the
same race, having a common history, speaking the same
language and belonging to a continental community founded
mainly on identical principles of fraternity, independence, lib-
erty and honor which the rules of their private and public
laws have inspired: the uti possidetis of 1810 and arbitration
were always the two axes of the relations between the mem-
bers of this community, the former insuring the territorial
integrity of each one of them within the boundary with which
they were born to the independent life and the second pre-
serving harmony through even the gravest disputes.
Chile mortally wounded all this beautiful building to nour-
ish its excessive ambition for wealth and did not hesitate in
sailing along the extensive Peruvian coast with its ships bom-
barding its defenseless forts, burning all the communities,
plantations and factories of its numerous valleys and carrying
the war up to the capital which escaped burning and destruc-
tion only through the energetic intervention of the neutral
navies anchored at Callao which could not, nevertheless, pre-
vent the destruction of all the communities which the Chilean
army went through prior to arriving there. The detailed
34
narration of the incredible events which we have just out-
lined is found not only in the works written by the Peruvians
but in the more numerous works written by Chileans in which
phrases of just reproach are not scarce. We shall cite here
Barros Arana, Bulnes, Vicuna, Mackena, Chileans; Sir Cle-
ments R. Markham, C. B. F. R. S., British, and Paz Soldan
and Maurtua, Peruvians, and we shall prescind of the rest
because works on this subject are so numerous. The facts
involved have had so much resonance in the world that we
deem it surplusage to insist on the matter and we proceed to
deal with how indispensable for Peru is the treasure which
at the end of three years of occupation of its capital it had
to cede to Chile by the treaty of peace.
VI. As a result of the height of the Andes which back up
the coast of Peru and of the currents of the ocean which
bathes it, it never rains on that coast which is for this reason
an immense sandy desert cut at more or less fifty points only
by torrential rivers which descend from the snow covered
peaks towards the sea and irrigate the lands through which
they run forming precious oases the production of which is,
however, far from weighing in the balance as does in space
the expanse which surrounds them. But all has its compen-
sation in nature, and if it has denied to the Peruvian coast
the immense benefit of the waters from the sky it has given
it the accummulation of substances such as the guano and the
saltpetre the formation of which the rain prevents on the
lands which it waters and which would serve Peru to extract,
by selling them as fertilizer for agriculture and other uses on
lands better endowed, the articles which it cannot produce,
and to obtain from them also the means of extending its
scarce agriculture by artificial irrigation.
Chile has broken this equilibrium established by nature and
has left the coast of Peru deprived of both rain and the prod-
ucts which are formed in its absence and which serve as a
35
substitute for it, whereas the Chilean coast where the clouds
are less miserly is an inexhaustible source of wealth and of
beauty on which the Chilean people always find productive
and delightful work. The products of the immense desert
which is outside its boundaries were not needed by it and in
its hands they serve only for the luxury of the leading classes,
for armament disproportionate to its population and its nat-
ural production and for an ostentatious diplomacy and a pro-
paganda in favor of its interests and of its ideals which all
the world is appreciating at what it is worth, not by what it
costs, which is a great deal, but for what it teaches, which
is nothing or something less. Chile has then also broken its
own equilibrium and has compromised by this deed its future
which it thought to insure and which was then notably clearer.
Chile does not wish to acknowledge as the allies of Europe
in the last war have acknowledged that one cannot ruin the
neighbor without causing one's own ruin and that the salt-
petres and the guanos of the desert of which it has despoiled
its owners, to the great detriment of their progress and pro-
duction, will sooner or later cause its own ruin through moral
and economic considerations which have become indisputable.
America, not blinded by interest as the men who direct
Chilean policy, fortunately knows what to believe and in one
way or another it will reestablish the wise order of nature
destroyed by the most unjust and most cruel of the wars.
VII. Meanwhile Chile continues to ascend along the path
which leads it away from justice and from reparation to the
allies of 1879 but which certainly does not lead it to a higher
place in the opinion of America nor to a greater prosperity
in the commercial dealings with its people nor to a higher
level in its interior progress and sociability.
Chile continues effectively disturbing the tranquility of the
vanquished of 1879 and breaking with unheard of lack of
practical sense the treaty of peace which gave it, using Bulnes'
36
expression, the gold dust of Tarapaca pursued indefatigably
during forty years.
Peace had just been signed and Chile continued the con-
quest to which it put an end extending itself through terri-
tories and communities on the province of Tarata and even
of the Department of Puno and refusing to return them
under pretexts no more sound than those which it alleged to
declare the war. The question of Tarata is also already forty
years old during which years Chile has been restraining its
determination and aggravating the deed in exactly the same
way that during the previous forty years it had resisted the
just claims of Bolivia at the same time that it already ad-
vanced into its desert with the aim of awaiting a propitious
occasion to finally obtain a title of ownership and to begin
anew on the basis of what it should offer it. There cannot
be peace with Chile because war is its industry.
More serious still is the violation which Chile has made and
continues to make of the third clause of the treaty of peace
which says:
"The territory of the provinces of Tacna and
Arica which bounds .... shall continue to be pos-
sessed by Chile and subject to the Chilean laws and
authorities during the period of ten years counted
from the date of ratification of this treaty of peace.
At the end of this period a plebiscite will decide, by
popular vote, whether the territory of the said prov-
inces remains definitively under the ownership and sov-
ereignty of Chile or continues to be part of the Peru-
vian territory. That one of the two countries to
which the provinces of Tacna and Arica remain an-
nexed shall pay to the other ten million pesos Chilean
silver currency or Peruvian soles of equal alloy and
weight."
"A special protocol which will be considered an
integral part of this treaty will establish the form
in which the plebiscite shall take place and the terms
37
on and the periods within which the ten millions shall
be paid by the country which remain the owner of the
provinces of Tacna and Arica."
Chile avoided with different pretexts the verbal insinua-
tions of the Peruvian functionaries to execute the protocol
contemplated in the last part of the transcribed clause until
April of the year 1892, when the Peruvian Foreign Office
formally initiated the negotiations for the execution of the
complementary protocol provided for in the treaty of Ancon
and from said date until now it has not been possible to reach
any definitive results. The course which these negotiations
already more than thirty years old have followed, which it
would be impossible to state here in all its details, has been
thus summarized by Dr. Victor M. Maurtua in his recent
work "Sobre el Pacifico del Sur" at page 159.
"The weight of the whole treaty of Ancon has
fallen on Peru. A disastrous diplomatic instrument
without any doubt! And nevertheless Peru has per-
formed it loyally. One only clause left some hope:
the recovery of the heroic provinces of live and intense
loyalty. Peru has not been able to obtain the holding
of the plebiscite on which their restitution depended."
"In 1892, 1893 and 1896 it made efforts to recover
its provinces by means of direct settlement or by
plebiscite. In vain. On the termination of the pe-
riod of ten years provided by the treaty for the Chilean
occupation Peru demanded that its provinces should be
returned to its administration. This was refused it.
In 1892, 1894 (twice), 1896, 1898, 1900, 1905, 1907,
Peru insistently claimed the plebiscite. Chile refused
to effect it pretending to proceed itself and without
any guaranty of sincerity to consult the popular will
giving the right to vote to the persons which it should
designate and under the conditions which it should
deem proper to confirm its conquest. Peru proposes
to entrust the zone of the plebiscite to an interna-
tional commission. New Chilean refusal. Peru of-
38
fered to resort to arbitration to settle the difference
and to determine the proceedings of a popular consul-
tation. Chile refused arbitration. Peru entered into
two agreements with the Chilean government: one
in 1894, the other in 1898, the latter was fully per-
fected for the holding of the plebiscite. Chile with-
drew from the first of said agreements and its Par-
liament rejected the second because it contained an
arbitration clause regarding certain formalities of the
plebiscite. Chile to check the Peruvian effort under-
takes the denationalization of the provinces and their
assimilation in a tyrannical way. Peru fought this
policy, interposed claims against it one hundred times,
denounced it as a fraud against the treaty. Chile dis-
regards these claims and continues its work expelling
the Peruvian element, appropriating the real estate,
arbitrarily importing immigrants for the purpose of
Chilean colonization. Finally, when after twenty
years its occupation title had lapsed and it could be-
lieve its work of denationalization ended, it invited
Peru in 1909 and 1910 to a plebiscite. Chile even
then did not propose to organize a true popular con-
sultation : It declared that the third article of the
treaty of Ancon constituted a disguised annexation,
the plebiscite would be held under the control of its
authorities and for the purpose of legalizing the an-
nexation. Such is, in a few words, the synthesis of
the affair."
So Chile has violated the third clause of the treaty of
Ancon. There is not the least doubt of this. The develop-
ment of the negotiations recorded in detail in the reports of
the Foreign Offices of the two countries, the narratives of
their newspaper men and historians, everything, everything,
tends to confirm the most absolute and complete evidence on
this matter. We shall not therefore insist on it and we shall
finish by copying from the book "Documentos Esenciales del
Debate Peruano-Chileno," already mentioned, Vol. II, P.
163 the following conclusive documents:
39
"D. 67.— BULNES THE OFFICIAL CHIL-
EAN HISTORIAN STATES THAT PERU
HAS ALWAYS WISHED TO FULFILL THE
TREATY OF ANCON AND THAT THE POL-
ICY OF CHILE HAS BEEN ONE OF VACIL-
LATIONS AND OF CURVES."
"Peru has had live interest in that the plebiscite
be held. To deny it is to place oneself in a bad situa-
tion because it can prove the contrary by merely ex-
hibiting the diplomatic documents. The reasons of
that interest are very clear and may be condensed as
follows :
"1. — Chile was in possession of the disputed thing
and the only means that Peru had of recovering it
was to press it to comply with the condition provided
in the treaty. Consequently the natural part of Peru
during the gestation of this affair was "active," that
of Chile "passive."
"2. — Peru has been listening to the clamor of the
inhabitants to incorporate themselves in their an-
cient nationality and by patriotism and even by de-
corum it could not show itself unfeeling to that pres-
sure."
"3. — Peru has had blind confidence in the plebis-
cite. The Peruvian policy has been firm from the be-
ginning of the debate and ours has had all sorts of
vacillations and curves. The Peruvian objective
could not vacillate because its ancient desire has been
to recover its ancient provinces causing the plebiscite
to be held Under the control of a foreign authority
and trying to obtain the greatest facilities for the pay-
ment of the ransom."
"On the other hand Chile has worked one day to
win the plebiscite for its own benefit, another to make
a gift of the territory to Bolivia, another to deliver
it to Peru and naturally its action has been weak and
it has made declarations and stated contradictory and
dangerous principles."
"Gonzalo Bulnes."
40
"D. 68.— THE CHILEAN SENATOR ROSS
DECLARES THAT CHILE HAS HINDERED
THE REALIZATION OF THE PLEBISCITE
AND THAT IN THE OPINION OF THE
BRITISH DELEGATE MR. BUNSEN ITS
SITUATION IN THIS REGARD IS FALSE
AND UNSUSTAINABLE.
"The period of ten years for the holding of the
stipulated plebiscite ended in 1893, twenty-eight years
ago, and that act has not been performed."
"Why? We can in conscience affirm that it has
not been performed because Chile has hindered its per-
formance by opposing all kinds of difficulties and of
dilatory measures."
"In Chile, Peru has been blamed for the delay in
the arrangements for the plebiscite but it does not
seem that this argument could be proved. On the
contrary, in Peru Chile is blamed."
"The situation is very clear ; the "entente" triumph-
ing in the war which is very probable, and interna-
tional tribunal will be organized the jurisdiction of
which will embrace all the countries of America. It
is proclaimed by President Wilson in the name of all
the belligerent nations; it is supported by Great
Britain ; it is accepted by Peru which proposes to claim
its rights before it. Peru will certainly be one of the
members of the League of Nations and shall cause it-
self to be heard."
"If the actual situation continues Chile will see
itself compelled to accept the arbitration of the tri-
bunal of the League of Nations as to the realization
and form of the plebiscite. That the verdict of the
tribunal will be contrary to Chile there is no doubt."
"Mr. Bunsen as an experienced diplomat took good
care as much in Chile as in Bolivia and in Peru not
to manifest his opinion on the Tacna and Arica ques-
tion. But we may now affirm with full knowledge
of the case that Mr. Bunsen has studied with his
secretary all the antecedents of the Tacna and Arica
41
question between Peru and Chile and has formed the
firm personal opinion that Chile has failed to fulfill
its obligations established in the treaty of Ancon and
that it finds itself in that regard in a false and unsus-
tainable situation."
"This is an important and not very favorable ante-
cedent for Chile in this delicate question. The plebis-
cite will be held and the result will be at least very
doubtful for Chile. We would have to submit to the
impositions of the tribunal bearing the consequent
shame and probably would have to submit also to
have the territories of Tacna and Arica returned to
the jurisdiction and sovereignty of Peru and remain
partitioned from Tarapaca."
"Augustin Ross,"
"Revista Chilena."
As international authority we transcribe the follow-
ing:
"To break a treaty of peace is to violate the agree-
ments entered into in it either by doing what it forbids
or by not doing what it prescribes. One may fail to
perform the obligations arising from a treaty in three
different manners: by conduct contrary to the nature
and to the essence of the treaty of peace in general or
by acts incompatible with the particular nature of the
treaty or finally by violating some one of its express
articles."
"One acts against the nature and the essense of
every treaty of peace, against peace itself, when one
disturbs it without cause, either by taking up arms and
renewing the war although one cannot allege even a
scarcely plausible pretext or by offending the mental
comfort of the one with whom the peace has been
made and by treating it or its subjects in a manner
incompatible with the status of a nation and which it
cannot suffer without failing in its self respect . . . ."
"The second way of breaking a treaty of peace is by
doing something contrary to that which the particular
nature of the treaty requires. Thus every act con-
42
trary to friendship breaks a treaty of peace made under
the express condition of living forever as good friends.
To favor the enemies of a nation, to treat its subjects
harshly, to molest its commerce without cause, to pre-
fer another nation to it, to refuse it necessary supplies
for which it wishes to pay and which could be spared,
to protect its conspirators or rebels, to give them
asylum: all those are acts equally contrary to friend-
ship . . . ."
"Finally peace is broken by the violation of some one
of the express articles of the treaty. This third
manner of breaking is the most decided, the least sub-
ject to evasions and chicanery. Whichever fails to
perform its obligations annuls the treaty as much as it
is in its power to do so; there is no doubt of that."
"Pretended delays are the equivalent of an express
refusal and they do not differ from it except by the
artifice with which the one which makes use of them
would wish to cover its bad faith. It adds fraud to
perfidy and really violates the article which it ought
to comply with."
"When the treaty of peace is violated by one of the
contracting parties the other may declare the treaty
broken or let it subsist; because it cannot be bound by
a treaty which contains reciprocal agreements towards
one which does not respect that very treaty . . . ."
Vattel Droit Des Gens Pp. 747, 751, 752 and 756.
"To recommence a war, by breach of the articles
of a treaty of peace, is deemed much more odious than
to provoke a war by some new demand and aggression ;
for the latter is simply injustice but, in the former
case, the party is guilty both of perfidy and injustice.
The violation of any one article of a treaty is a vio-
lation of the whole treaty ; for all the articles are de-
pendent on each other, and one is to be deemed a con-
dition of the other; and a violation of any single
article overthrows the whole treaty, if the injured
party elects so to consider it. This may, however,
be prevented by an express provision, that if one article
be broken, the others shall, nevertheless, continue in
full force. There is a strong instance in the history
43
of the United States of the annihilation of treaties by
the act of the injured party. In 1798, the Congress
of that country declared that the treaties with France
were no longer obligatory on the United States, as
they had been repeatedly violated on the part of the
French Government, and all just claims for repara-
tion refused." Kent "International Law" P. 420.
The act of Congress "annulling" the treaties fol-
lows:
"Whereas the treaties concluded between the
United States and France have been repeatedly vio-
lated on the part of the French Government, and the
just claims of the United States for reparation of the
injuries so committed have been refused, and their
attempts to negotiate an amicable adjustment of all
complaints between the two nations have been repelled
with great indignity; and whereas, under authority
of the French Government, there is yet pursued
against the United States a system of predatory vio-
lence, infracting the said treaties and hostile to the
rights of a free and independent nation:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives of the United States of America in Con-
gress assembled, That the United States are of right
freed and exonerated from the stipulations of the
treaty and of the consular convention heretofore con-
cluded between the United States and France, and
that the same shall not henceforth be regarded as
legally obligatory on the Government or citizens of
the United States.
"Approved July 7, 1798." 1 U. S. Stat. 1-578.
"The violation of any one article of the treaty is a
violation of the whole treaty; for all the articles are
dependent on each other and one is to be deemed a con-
dition of the other. A violation of any single article
abrogates the whole treaty, if the injured party so
elects to consider it. This may, however, be pre-
vented by an express stipulation, that if one article be
broken, the others shall nevertheless continue in full
44
force. If the treaty is violated by one of the con-
tracting parties, either by proceedings incompatible
with its general spirit, or by a specific breach of any
one of its articles, it becomes not absolutely void, but
voidable at the election of the injured party. If he
prefers not to come to a rupture, the treaty remains
valid and obligatory. He may waive or remit the in-
fraction committed, or he may demand a just satisfac-
tion." Wheaton "International Law" P. 621.
There is not then any difference of opinion among the in-
ternational law authorities on the point that the violation of
a clause by one of the contracting parties entitles the other
to-consider the treaty null or lapsed.
A slight discrepancy exists regarding the kind of the obliga-
tion violated or not fulfilled and some authors insist that it
must be essential, in the light of the nature of the treaty, or
of unquestionable importance. But nothing more essential
can be conceived in the treaty of Ancon than the obligation
contracted by Chile in the third clause because the third clause
was the only point of discord in the final conferences which
preceded the execution of the peace and only the irrevocable
resolution of the Peruvian negotiators which did not yield
the rights which said clause gives Peru resulted in its accept-
ance by the Chileans.
Nothing can be considered more essential in a treaty than
that stipulation without which it would have been impossible
to make the treaty, because its insertion signifies that in the
final accord of the parties both agreed that the existence of
the treaty was dependent upon that stipulation. And that
Peru exacted the third clause as an irrevocable condition is
proved by the record of the negotiations which preceded the
signing of the treaty.
As it would not be possible to transcribe here all the docu-
ments in point we shall limit ourselves to the following two
which we take from the Biblioteca del Mercurio Peruano's
45
"Documentos Esenciales del Debate Peruano Chileno" pub-
lished by the Comite Patriotico Peruano, Series A. Vol. 2,
P. 83:
"THE TREATY OF ANCON AND THE
NATURE OF THE PLEBISCITE PROVIDED
FOR IN IT."
<<D. 40— BASIS PROPOSED TO GENERAL
IGLESIAS AND REJECTED BY THE LAT-
TER."
"In January of the year 1883 the plenipotentiary
Mr. Novoa presented to Mr. Castro Saldivar a mem-
orandum of note containing the following bases:
"No. 1. — The absolute and unconditional cession of
Tarapaca.
"No. 2. — The sale of Tacna and Arica for ten mil-
lion pesos payable three at the time of ratification of
the treaty and the remaining seven in two, four and
six years ;
"No. 3. — The territories ceded and bought do not
acknowledge Peruvian debt."
"As regards the guano and the saltpetre, the con-
tract entered into and the decrees of the supreme gov-
ernment of Chile on the matter shall be faithfully
fulfilled."
"No. 4. — As to the islands of Lobos, Chile will con-
tinue to administer them until the termination of the
contract of sale of the million tons and when the
treaty be ratified and exchanged Chile will deliver to
Peru the fifty per cent net which it now reserves for
itself;"
"No. 5. — Subsequent agreements will provide for
the commercial relations and the indemnities due to the
Chileans."
"D. 41.— DECLARATION OF THE CHIL-
EAN NEGOTIATOR NOVOA ON THE RE-
FUSAL OF PERU TO SELL TACNA AND
ARICA AND ON THE VERIDICAL AND
FREE NATURE OF THE PLEBISCITE
WHICH WAS PROPOSED."
46
"Mr. Novoa says in his letter to Mr. Castro Saldi-
var:
"It having been declared by me that it was not even
possible to enter into discussion regarding the cession
of Tarapaca, Mr. Lavalle as well as you went on to
object to the second proposal relating to Tacna and
Arica. You expressed to me that you did not accept
the proposal for ten millions nor for any sum because
not only were there Peruvian interests in that territory
which already involved an immense sacrifice but there
was also Peruvian population. You further made a
series of observations in this regard."
"For my part, I manifested to you that the situa-
tion created by the war rendered the possession of those
territories necessary for Chile, and that the circum-
stance that there existed Peruvian population there
was not such a serious obstacle and was on the other
hand what always happened in analogous cases. That
in the primordial interests of peace that was not an
obstacle. You insisted on your observations and it
was left up to both sides to think the matter over
further and to try to arrive at a conclusion at a con-
ference to be held soon thereafter."
"On the 9th of April we again met in Chorrillos
and resuming the previous conference the territories of
Tacna and Arica were again the subject of discussion.
After a prolonged discussion the idea of the plebiscite
such as the treaty of the 20th of October has recorded
it was accepted. Agreed upon this idea, Mr. Lavalle
requested that if the popular vote declared that Tacna
and Arica should remain forever under the ownership
of Peru the latter did not have to pay ten millions of
pesos since it did not acquire but simply kept what
was its own. I insisted that it was necessary to estab-
lish reciprocity since whether this territory should
later be Chilean or Peruvian depended on the popular
vote and not on the will of either of the contracting
parties."
Every treaty between two nations is in general subject
to the same rules which apply to a bilateral contract between
47
two private parties: each one owes the equivalent of what it
receives: what does conqueror give in a treaty of peace in ex-
change for receiving from the conquered all that was the ob-
ject of the dispute or immeasurably more as in the present
case? It gives the peace, the suppression of the force which
oppresses the vanquished and the restitution of all the mani-
festations of consideration and friendship which are substi-
tuted for the hostilities of the war.
Well then, Peru has not had peace since it signed the treaty
with Chile. It has not received in any form or proportion
the equivalent of the immense sacrifices which were exacted
from it. The treaty, therefore, if it ever bound Peru, has
ceased to be binding upon it. .
It is fully evident then that the treaty of peace of 1883
has lapsed due to the non-fulfillment of the third clause and
by Chile's opposition to it during thirty years, besides being
null from its inception as we demonstrated before.
We the natives of Tarapaca consequently have the most
just and gratifying outlook of the devolution of Tarapaca
to the Motherland and of living again in the land of our
birth whence we have been driven by the invader.
This anticipation must now convert itself into reality as a
result of the work of the conference which is about to be held
in Washington.
VIII. We cannot expect that the conference ignore our
rights which are also those of all Peru because if such a thing
should happen, these other two would also happen : the work
of the conference would be truncate and its results no less
truncate, and we not only would remain in the sad and
ruinous condition in which we now find ourselves but we
would lose the hope of obtaining in the future the restitutions
to which we are entitled, since a settlement between Peru and
Chile, in the absence of the force which exerted pressure on
the former when the treaty of peace was executed, would
43
signify a clean title to all that which that treaty granted to
Chile should it not be altered by the conference, and would
signify besides, implicitly or explicitly, the guaranty of that
great republic to the maintenance of the iniquitous conquest
which tore us from the Motherland.
IX. Finally, if a treaty should be signed in Washington
without considering the rights of Peru to Tarapaca or with-
out conceding them to it, the conference would have been a
failure because Chile once the irrevocable owner of Tarapaca,
Bolivia would irrevocably also remain deprived of every out-
let to the ocean and of all hope of having it so long as the
new treaty should subsist. Chile could not then be willing
to return to Bolivia the desert which it wrested from it nor
any part of that desert because however small that part
should be it would always cause a gap in what would have
become with unassailable title Chilean property.
It is possible that Chile would then go back to the old
theme of giving Bolivia a port at the expense of Peru. How-
ever much an eighty years' incubation may have naturalized
in the Chilean minds this idea that Peru besides granting its
own to Chile ought to pay for the latter's trespasses against
Bolivia, Bolivia would not dare to accept such a present nor
could America and the world fail to condemn it.
In any case, a problem would have remained without solu-
tion, and if it should solve itself in some way, as naturally
would happen because nations as well as rivers know how to
open for themselves an outlet to the sea, there would be in
America a commotion, if not two or more, and, meanwhile,
intranquility with all its consequences and dangers. The in-
dubitable common sense of the Government of that great
republic gives us the most deeply rooted hope that that will
not happen and that if the conference should not entirely
solve the problem of the South Pacific, it would at least not
close the door to just subsequent solutions.
49
CABLE ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT WILSON BY THE
NATIVES OF TARAPACA.
Lima, February 8th, 1919.
To President Wilson, 1.5 P. M.
Paris.
We, natives of Tarapaca, of Tacna and Arica, after
having supported for more than thirty-eight years the
suffering of a cruel captivity, find ourselves today expelled
violently by Chile from the land where we were born.
Peru is unable to protect out rights, as much owing to
the fact that it is unprepared for war as owing to its ac-
ceptance of the wise counsel of the United States of avoid-
ing any solution by force.
Under these conditions and before the indifference of
the other Governments of South America, we gather to
ask justice from the eminent man who in 1918 proclaimed
so that the whole world might hear, the most sublime
principles of international justice, and who, placing at the
service of these principles the colossal forces of his country,
triumphed against the despotism and arbitariness which
ruled in some States of Europe.
In order that your Excellency may appreciate the justice
of our cause, we give here a brief summary of the conflict
pending between our country and Chile.
Peru, which possessed a great territory and such fabulous
riches as that contained in the guano and the nitrate,
coveted nothing from the other countries of America;
while Chile, poor in resources and with a closely circum-
scribed territory, was possessed of the insistent desire of
enriching itself and extending its soil at the cost of the
neighboring nations.
In 1871, Chile contracted for two powerful armoured
cruisers and a large quantity of other warlike elements,
51
which gave it a notable military superiority on the
Pacific.
Peru in order to meet the danger which threatened the
peace in this part of the American Continent accepted in
1873 the purely defensive alliance proposed by Bolivia; an
alliance in which unfortunately they did not succeed in
including the Argentine Republic, which would certainly
have prevented the war of conquest of 1879.
In that year Chile completed its armament and believed
that the moment had arrived for the realization of its
ambition. Availing itself of a petty protest, Antofagasta
was invaded, thus violating the arbitration agreement
which it had collaborated with Bolivia, and replied to the
friendly intervention of Peru by declaring war.
Better armed than its opponents Chile gained the war
and after a struggle of more than four years and occupation
of the capital of Peru by the Chilian army, peace was
proposed.
Chile imposed as a condition the cession of Tarapaca,
where were located the guano and nitrates which it desired,
a pretention which was refused by Peru.
General Hurlburt, the American Minister in Peru, made
known to the Chile representative that his instructions
were: "To work earnestly for the celebration of a treaty of
peace eliminating the cession of territories, whether as a
previous question, or as a fundamental basis of a treaty,"
and in the memorandum which he addressed to the
Chilian chief on the 23rd of August, 1881, he said: "As
there never has existed any question of limits between
Peru and Chile, consequently there are no frontiers to
delimitate; and as Chile has repeatedly stated, publicly and
officially, that it has no intention nor design of forcibly
annexing territory, we are of the clear opinion that now
such an attitude would not harmonized with the dignity
and with good faith of Chile, and would be disastrous for
52
the future tranquility of both countries, and engender a
grave enmity that would constantly be manifested by
disturbances. Such a procedure on the part of Chile
would be regarded with great disfavor by the United
States."
Unfortunately for Peru the assassination of President
Garfield occurred at this time and shortly afterwards Mr.
Hurlburt died violently and suspiciously.
The new President of the United States did not follow
out the foreign policy of his predecessor, and Peru con-
quered, without elements of war, and exhausted by a long
struggle was obliged to sign the peace of Ancon, imposed
by force, and according to which Chile appropriated the
department of Tarapaca and was to occupy Tacna and
Arica for ten years.
When this treaty of peace was discussed we the inhabi-
tants (natives) of Tarapaca presented a protest whose
conclusions were:
1st. — Not to recognize neither to accept as valid any
treaty to be celebrated by Peru in which may be stipu-
lated the cession of our department to Chile, or any
other State, whatever may be the Peruvian Government
celebrating it and the source from which its authority
emanates.
"2. — In the event of the condition mentioned in the
preceding articles being carried out, to resume our innate
right of sovereignty to be made effective in such form, how
and when convenient, remaining annulled "de facto" the
covenant convention uniting us to Peru.
"3. — Not to accept the appeal to the wishes of the
inhabitants of our department, unless the voting is con-
fined exclusively to the citizens born in this territory, the
only ones who have the right to decide as to its future
destiny, the voting to be carried out with full guarantees.
S3
"4. — To remain loyal to the Peruvian laws, to follow the
dispositions of its recognized authority and to accept the
common fate reserved for Peru in the present or in what-
ever other emergency while the principles of its territorial
integrity written in the fundamental charter of the State,
are observed.
''To opportunely determine the manner of making
effective those resolutions and giving them due publicity
according to the turn of events."
We, the citizens of Tacna and Arica presented a similar
protest but Chile employing the same methods used by
Germany against France in 1871, forced Peru to sign the
treaty which it imposed.
This treaty wrung from us by force, signed by function-
aries who were not the legal representatives of Peru, and
approved by a Congress in which there were no representa-
tives from Tarapaca, Tacna, Arica and many other prov-
inces of the Republic, violated the Peruvian constitution,
which prohibits the celebration of agreements affecting the
territorial integrity or the sovereignty of the nation.
Chile, which with the wealth taken from Tarapaca was
able to increase considerably its military power, never
complied with the treaty of Ancon wherein it might favour
Peru. It commenced to take possession of the province of
Tarata, adjoining that of Tacna, and placed every obstacle
to hinder the establishment of the basis for the realization
of the plebiscite, which would resolve definitely the
nationality of Tacna and Arica.
In the year 1898 Chile had serious difficulties with the
Argentine, and fearing war with this nation, consented to
sign the Billinghurst-Latorre protocol, which established
the condition of the plebiscite. This protocol was ap-
proved by Peru and also by the Chilian Senate; but as, in
the meantime, the conflict with the Argentine had been
54
arranged, the Chilian Chamber of Deputies refused its
approval.
After that Peru took repeated steps to established the
conditions of the plebiscite; Chile not only ignored these
representations, but commenced in Iquique, Pisagua, Tacna
and Arica, a campaign of persecution against Peruvians
for the purpose of obliging them to abandon these terri-
tories.
In 1910 and 1911, the Peruvian schools were closed, and
Peruvian priests were expelled by force, the employment of
Peruvian port workmen in Iquique, Pisagua and Arica,
was prohibited, printing shops in which were published
four Peruvian periodicals, were destroyed, Peruvian clubs
at Iquique, Tacna and Arica, were also destroyed, and
what were considered the most representative Peruvians
were compelled to leave these cities.
On the declaration of the last European war, Chile
manifested its open sympathy for Germany, and as con-
crete and notable evidences of that sympathy, we cite the
two following illustrations: The Chilian authorities of
Magallanes advised the German squadron of the place
where they could find the British Pacific squadron, and
thanks to this information, the latter was attacked and
sunk off" the Chilian port ofCoronel;whennewswas received
of one of the German triumphs in French territory, a
portion of the Chilian army marched through the streets of
Santiago singing "Deutschland ueber alles."
Happily, thanks to the powerful aid rendered by the
United States, Germany was vanquished, and as this
defeat signified for Chile the disappearance on its dreams of
imperialism in South America, it has believed it con-
venient to prepare to resist the dictates of international
justice, and at the same time that it employs against the
Peruvian resident in Tarapaca, Tacna, Arica and Antofa-
gasta, an arbitrary .and cruel procedure of sack, assault,
55
incendiarism and assassination, its Chancellery endeavors
to deceive other nations, brazenly denying these outrages,
which are public and notorious.
If your Excellency would condescend to send a comission
of honorable persons, proofs will be given this commission
that Chile expelled by force the Peruvian Consul from
Iquique, and that in this city as well as in Pisagua, Toco-
pilla, Tacna, Arica and Antofagasta, so called "patriotic
Leagues" have been organized with the purpose of insti-
tuting manifestations against Peruvians, who are physi-
cally assaulted in the streets and in their houses, which are
sacked while under the custody of soldiers they are turned
out of these territories; it will be found that the powerful
North American Company of Chuquicamata has been
forced to discharge its Peruvian employees and operators
as have the nitrate railways of Iquique and Pisagua, the
nitrato oficinas and foreign commercial houses. These
Peruvians rendered desperate by such persecutions, are
abandoning their home, losing their goods and properties
and arriving in Bolivia, Argentine and various cities of
Peru by thousands.
Your Excellency, making the proclamation of principles
in your discourses to the American Congress on the 8th of
January and the 1 1th of February 1918 and before the tomb
of Washington on the 4th of July of the same year, has
shown himself as a defender of humanity; these principles
have found a sympathetic echo in the heart of all good men,
and we are certain that they will serve as the basis of the
conditions under which peace will be celebrated, putting
an end to the last war and organizing future international
relations not only in Europe but in the entire world.
Before the war of 1879, Chilian territory did not lie
adjacent to that of Peru, and Chile never had any right
over possession of Tarapaca, Tacna and Arica; it asked the
cession of the first of these provinces because, alleging that
56
Peru did not have the money to pay an indemnity to com-
pensate for the cost and the sacrifices imposed by the war,
the cession of Tarapaca represented this indemnity; this
was expressly stated by the Chilian Chancellor, Mel-
quiades Valderrama, in the circular directed to the diplo-
matic corps on the 10th of November, 1880, manifesting
the reasons which in his opinion occasioned the failure of
the negotiations of peace, which took place in Arica aboard
the American warship "Lakawana."
Be that as it may, Chile spent in the war against Peru
and Bolivia 17,000,000 pesos of 36d, that is 2,550,000
Pounds, and has received from Tarapaca through taxation
on the exportation of nitrate and iodine and for sale of
guano and nitrate lands, more than a hundred and thirty
millions pounds sterling. Therefore, they have been paid
the greatest indemnity it was possible to claim, the greatest
paid up to the present time, as the result of a war; nothing
is owing them, and in consequence, there is no reason for
the retention by Chile of territories which it claimed only
as a means of securing an indemnity which it believed
pertained to it as the victorious nation.
In harmony with the antecedents set forth and with the
principles proclaimed by your Excellency we take the
liberty of formulating the following petition:
1. — The annulment of the treaty of Ancon and a conse-
quent restitution to Peru of the territories of Tarapaca,
Tacna and Arica;
2. — That Chile be forced to grant the Peruvian resi-
dents in the indicated territories the guarantees accorded
by civilized nations, while restitution of these territories is
being effected.
(Follow more than one thousand signatures which cor-
respond to only a portion of the Peruvians expelled from
Tarapaca, Tacna and Arica, actually in Lima. These
signatures, in original, are being desposited in the United
States Legation.)
57
PATRIOTIC PROTEST SIGNED BY THE NATIVES
OF TARAPACA, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE
CHILIAN OCCUPATION.
ACT— IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.
The undersigned, natives of the department of Tarapaca,
Considering :
1st. — That as a result of the fratricide war sustained by the
republic of Chili against Peru, the first named government
pretends, as an absolute condition for the signature of peace,
the perpetual transfer of our department in order to form a
Chilian province, counting simple and exclusively with the
advantages that the instable good luck of arms has furnished ;
2nd. — That the great future reserved to the American Con-
tinent rests precisely in the peace and tranquility that must
prevail in all and each of the countries forming it, under
which benefactor shadow the ideas of material, moral and
intellectual progress that cause the prosperity of people, can
freely develop ;
3rd. — That the right of conquest that the Chilean nation
irrevocably pretends to establish in the International Ameri-
can Code, not only destroys from its basis the pillar on which
so far the independence of each one of the sovereign states
in which the continent is divided, has reposed, but that re-
moves far away and for ever the realization of a happy
future; said mournful right be accepted, in a short time
America would be converted into a vast military camp and its
natives with no other occupation than the handling of arms,
to protect the independence of their respective countries, or
to attack and enslave those whom they consider most fit for
their ambition;
4th. — That the Political Constitution of Peru, in force
when the war was commenced, in its article 2nd reads: "The
59
Nation is free and independent and cannot sign any agree-
ment to oppose its independence or integrity or to affect in any
way its sovereignty" ; therefore, no government has the right,
which to the nation itself is denied, to celebrate agreements,
by any means, dismembering the national territory ;
5th. — That although in the Fundamental Constitution of
the State these principles of national integrity were not stipu-
lated, and a constituent congress should accept the exigencies
of the fortunate invader, making cession of our department to
save the independence of the remainder of Peru, a treaty un-
der such conditions would neither be acceptable for us;
6th. — That the department of Tarapaca was not obtained
by Peru by means of conquest, purchase or spontaneous
transfer, but as all the provinces of which the republic is
composed, contributed with the blood of its natives and all
kind of efforts to attain the national independence in the
bloody and long war that was necessary to sustain against its
secular oppressor the Spanish nation ;
7th. — That once Peru independent, its natives freely agreed
the union of its people in one only nation, to obtain the object
of all political association, declaring it as "One and indivis-
ible";
8th. — That if in the extremely unfortunate case, Peru is
bound to accept as legal a treaty with its invader in the condi-
tions demanded, no matter who it was and in whose name he
would act, breaking off thus "in fact" the social contract that
joins all the people that form the nation, we shall have the
most perfect right to consider ourselves loose from said con-
tract, and consequently free to make of our sovereignty the
use that may suit us best ;
9th. — That in case of an unexpected change which occur
frequently in politics, should it be necessary to consult by
means of a plebiscite, or in any other way, the will of the in-
habitants of our department, to determine if it may or not
60
form an integral portion of the Chilian territory, it is our
duty to declare at once, that said consultation shall not be ac-
cepted by us if it is not proposed only to the natives of the
department, excluding absolutely any person not being born
within its territory.
For all these and any other considerations resulting from
our most perfect and indestructible right; We protest before
all nations of America and the whole world in our name, in
the name of our sons and in that of the future generations;
1st. — Not to recognize nor accept as valid any treaty that
Peru may sign in which it be stipulated the transfer of our
department to Chili or to any other State, no matter what
Peruvian government may sign it or the source from which
its authority may spring;
2nd. — Should the event foreseen in the former clause occur,
we shall reassume our natural right of sovereignty to put it
into force how and when it may suit us best, in which case
we shall "in fact" remain free from the social contract that
joins us to Peru ;
3rd. — Not to accept the appeal to obtain the assentment of
the inhabitants of our department, if the opinion is not sub-
mitted exclusively to the citizens born in their territory, who
are the only ones that can dispose of their future destiny, and
that it will take place with absolute freedom ;
4th. — To remain faithful to Peruvian laws, paying sub-
mission to the resolutions of the legal authorities, and follow-
ing the common future reserved to Peru in the actual or in
any other emergency, so long as the principle of territorial in-
tegrity established in the Fundamental Constitution of the
State, is not violated.
To agree in its opportunity the way to put into force these
resolutions giving them proper publicity, in conformity with
the events that may develop.
61
We implore the protection of the Lord to keep aloft from
our country and from America the catastrophies that seem to
agglomerate upon the continent ; and to avoid us the sacrifices
of all kind which we should be compelled to face in protection
of our most venerated rights.
Tarapaca, January 1884.
G. Arredondo, Felipe B. Romero, Pedro J. Zavala, B.
Morales Bermudez, E. Ossio, Romulo Penaranda, Manuel J.
de Loayza, Juan E. Albarracin, Ildefonso de Loayza, Bruno
Quiroga, Alejo Mollo, Desiderio C. de Loayza, M. Rodri-
guez, Jose Mamani, Emilio R. Albarracin, Ciriaco Oviedo
Veliz, Felipe C. Higueras, Claudio C. Albarracin, Manuel
Mamani, Maximiliano Saavedra, Jose R. Molina, Belisario
Santibanez, Alberto Santibanez, Viconte E. Rocha, Mariano
Alcedan, Manuel R. Rodriguez, Juan C. Albarracin, Manuel
Amas, Luis M. Rodriguez, Guillermo R. Rodriguez, Fer-
nando Calvo, G. Blackadder, J. Oswaldo Aguirre, Angel C.
Beas, Jose Manuel Butron, Rojelio Beas, Andres Flores, J.
Gregorio, R. Quiroga, Jorge, Garate, Olegario Rios, Segundo
Barreda, Gregorio H. Okay, Exequiel Barreda, Jose Cabezas,
Vicente Liendo.
The signatures of all the natives of the department, follow.
62
PATRIOTIC PROTEST SIGNED BY NATIVES OF
TACNA AND ARICA, IMMEDIATELY AFTER
THE CHILIAN OCCUPATION.
The undersigned, natives of the Provinces of Tacna and
Arica, Considering:
First. — That for the purpose of putting an end to the war,
waged between our country and the Republic of Chile, a
treaty of peace has been ratified, in which the latter nation
demands as an indispensable condition the possession for a
period of ten years of the Provinces of Tacna and Arica, with
the proviso that at the end of this term popular opinion must
be consulted in order to ascertain through this medium
whether said Provinces are to form an integral part of Peru
or remain definitely annexed to Chili.
Second. — That this would signify to Peru the loss of two
provinces that are solidly united to her by powerful ties of
common interest and historic traditions.
Third. — That the temporary possession of the Provinces of
Tacna and Arica, although for a limited period, constitutes
an attack on the integrity of Peruvian territory, an integrity
permanently guaranteed by our Constitution, and which the
will of the Nation is always ready to defend.
Fourth. — That the Republic of Chili has no title whatso-
ever to justify its pretensions over the Provinces of Tacna and
Arica, because the victories obtained by her armies, by no
means, can make her claim legitimate to the retention of the
Provinces.
Fifth. — That if a treaty has been suscribed to, such an
instrument has only been entered into on the part of Peru,
due to the force of the hard oppression exercized by the
Chilian armies, such being consequently null and everything
therein stipulated worthless.
63
Sixth. — That Peru although obliged by Chilian arms,
cannot transfer the inprescriptible rights of collective per-
sonalities in benefit of a nation alien by its institutions, to our
customs and inveterate traditions, although such a transfer-
ence were even temporary.
Seventh. — That the treaty having been ratified, and on the
termination of the period of ten years occupation therein es-
tablished, the will of the Provinces in question must be con-
sulted in order to decide to which of the respective Nations
they desire to belong to ; the natives of those districts are the
only parties having the right to resolve their future in ac-
cordance with their own rights.
For these and many other reasons they agreed:
First. — To solemnly protest regarding the clause of the
treaty wherein was stipulated the possession of our Provinces
for ten years by the Republic of Chili, because the clause in
question is entirely opposed to the absolute principles of
patriotic honour, reason and justice upon which the precepts
of international right are based.
Second. — To remain faithful to the Peruvian nation ac-
cepting its laws, recognizing its legitimate authorities, sup-
porting the taxes imposed upon us, and always united to
Peru our country, to run together the same fate in the
future.
Third. — Not to recognize as valid the resolution referred
to in the article of the above-mentioned treaty, but only and
exclusively the free expressed will of the citizens born in our
Provinces.
Fourth. — To take as many measures as possible conducive
to the realization of the former resolutions, publishing the
present in order that its contents may become known all over
the Republic and by all the Nations.
Tacna, March 10th, 1884.
64
Bruno J. Vargas, Gregorio Bustios, F. Saturnino Bustios,
Rigoberto Molina, Miguel J. Zavala, Jose M. Herrera, Dr.
Monge Ledesma, Dr. Guillermo MacLean, Juan MacLean,
Luis B. Arce, Enrique Forero, Manuel M. Forero, Manuel
Cornejo, Carlos Basadre y Forero, Jose R. Pizarro, Neptali
J. G. Zavala, J. Oviedo, E. Allende, Guillermo Vera Re-
venga, Fortunato Osorio, A. Albarracin, P. L. Sotomayor,
Jose S. Bustios, Javier Aquiles Mendes, Carlos Zapata, Julio
F. Galvez, Aristides G. Vigil, Manuel T. Maria, Juan R.
Stevenson, Federico Arias y Delgado, J. E. Barron, Juan de
la Rosa Plaza, Lorenzo Infantas, Carlos Forero, Pedro J.
Portocarrero, Adan Vargas, Federico Vargas, Enrique Landa,
Felipe Landa, S. Vargas, Alfredo Valle-Riestra, Pedro
Linares, Milciades Cornejo, Lucas Paniagua, F. M. Baluarte,
Valeriano Albarracin.
The signatures of all the natives of the department, follow.
65
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