Paris Peace Conf. 723.2515/4: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in France ( Bliss )
[Received December 12—10:17 a.m.]
18. For the Secretary of State. With reference to the statements of the Presidents of Peru and Chile which have been sent to you today2 I wish to inform you that the Peruvian Minister on December 9 left the following memorandum at the Department:
“The Minister of Peru is instructed to advise the Honorable the Secretary of State that the Government of Peru accepts the mediation of the President of the United States and that the President of Peru will shortly communicate this acceptance by cable3 in reply to the message of the President of the United States.
The Government of Peru however does not desire that the mediation should assume the character of an American Continental mediation.
It has accepted the mediation of the President of the United States because the Government of Peru considers the President of the United States to be the initiator and the supporter of those principles which are to be asserted at the general peace conference.”
In view of the position assumed by the Government of Peru in considering the President’s statement as an offer of mediation and the statement of the President of Chile who appears to consider that the United States has only offered assistance and not mediation as set forth in the cable of December 9, 4 p.m. from the Embassy at Santiago, it is desired to ascertain the views of the President as to whether he wishes to make a further offer of formal mediation to both countries accepting the Peruvian interpretation or whether he desires that both countries be informed that the tender of all possible assistance to bring about an equitable solution of the matter is to be [Page 553] understood as referring only to the present difficulties between the two countries due to the disturbance in Iquique and not as an offer to mediate the whole Tacna and Arica question. It is also desired to ascertain the views of the President as to whether the Tacna Arica question should be laid before the Peace Conference or whether the United States Government alone should attempt to find a solution for this question which has now come to a head.
- Reference is to the Peruvian and Chilean replies to President Wilson’s tender of assistance to bring about a solution of the difficulties between Chile and Peru. The President’s offer is contained in the telegram of Dec. 4, 1918, 6 p.m., to the Ambassador in Chile, Foreign Relations, 1919, vol. i, p. 126. The Peruvian reply is quoted here; for the Chilean reply, see the telegram of Dec. 9, 1918, 4 p.m., from the Ambassador in Chile, ibid., p. 134.↩
- Not printed.↩