Peru agrees that all inhabitants, whether Chilean or Peruvian, shall
have the right to vote, provided that they enjoy electoral rights
under the constitutions of their respective governments. This is the
proposition made by Chile in 1909, except that she was willing to
include foreigners amongst the voters, while Peru insisted on their
exclusion. Chile assuming that the plebiscite would then take place
at once, proposed six months’ residence as a necessary condition for
voters, and Peru demanded that the time be extended to three years.
The plebiscite under the latest arrangement is to be postponed for
twenty-one years, during which interval it is hoped and believed that
the prejudices engendered by the war, and the ill-feeling existing
on the part of the citizens of both republics living in the disputed
territory will greatly change for the better, and lessen the chances
of a conflict in the final settlement of a difficult question of long
standing.
Peru is willing to accede the claim to preside at the taking of the
plebiscite, and the president of the Supreme Court of Chile will
preside. The rest of the board will be composed of two Chileans and two
Peruvians, and final decision will be reached by the majority.
The most important feature of the arrangements, however, is the
contemplated treaty of commerce and navigation, by which both countries
hope to create such a powerful influence for peace that the question
which for so many years has proven an insuperable difficulty to the
best efforts of the statesmen of both countries will play a secondary
and unimportant part in the relations between the two republics.
Chile is no longer disposed to treat with Peru in a conciliatory
manner, or submit to arbitration a question in which she has the
right of possession. Having settled peacefully the long standing
boundary dispute with the Argentine Republic, which for a quarter
of a century hung like a war cloud over the Cordilleras, and got
possession of Bolivia “tregua” (tentatively), by means of a treaty of
peace and amity, Chile is no longer afraid of a triple alliance with
the Argentine, Bolivia and Peru, which once menaced her security and
national life.
When the Spanish-American colonies united to secure their independence
from Spain it was mutually agreed that there should be no “no man’s
land.” To attain this end it was covenanted that the boundaries of the
new Republics should be those assigned to each as a colony. In many
instances those boundaries were ill defined, and in others conjectural
or imaginary. As explorations proceeded these errors were discovered
and naturally gave rise to territorial questions between neighboring
nations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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