Another big step for the preservation of Brazilian peace was made when in 1915 a pact was arranged between Argentina, Brazil and Chile which binds the three greatest South American states in a closer alliance than has yet been possible between North American countries. The terms include “rules for proceeding to facilitate the friendly solution of questions that were formerly excluded from arbitration” in virtue of the treaty of 1899 between Brazil and Chile, of 1902 between Chile and Argentina, and of 1905 between Argentina and Brazil. The articles of the new agreement arrange for the submission of disputes to a permanent Commission, the signatories agreeing not to commit hostile acts while the Commission’s report is pending or until one year has elapsed: the constitution of the Commission is provided for, and it is agreed that any one of the three contracting parties has power to convoke it; the seat of the Commission was fixed in the neighbouring (and presumably neutral) Republic of Uruguay—at Montevideo—and after it had presented its report upon matters in dispute the contracting parties, it was agreed, would recover liberty of action “to proceed as best consults their interest in the matter under investigation.” The A. B. C. Treaty, as it is known, was signed at Buenos Aires on May 25, 1915, by representatives of the three Governments; its strength has not been tested, but there is little reason to doubt that the formal acceptance of the arbitration principle by these three powerful states in the agreement is a big step forward in American history. “Brazil has always been an advocate of arbitration, and has accepted the fiats of arbitrators even when against her interests,” says J. P. Wileman, adding that the actual treaty is but a development of Brazil’s historic policy, though in the particular form it has taken the formula adopted by the United States has been followed; it is also significant because it “diminishes, although it does not eliminate, chances of war between the three leading South American countries,” and “leaves no excuse for the ruinous competition in armaments that has contributed so powerfully to the actual financial crises in all three countries.” With burdensome purchases of fighting vessels, rifles and cannon eliminated from their budgets the Argentine, Brazil and Chile can therefore “in future devote all their energies and resources to the moral and material advancement of their peoples.”