The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-09-09
CHILL THREATENS WAR
United States Is Dragged Into a
Dispute.
LAND GRAB THE ISSUE
BEILICoSE NATION SEEKS To
HOLD PROVINCE BY FORCE.

Correspondence of the Associated Press.)
Valparaiso, Chill, Aug. IA three
sided conflict is in prospect on account
of the Tacna-Arica question, which
has remained in allegiance since the
treaty of Ancon. which terminated in
1884 the victorious war of Chill against
Peru and Bolivia 1t was agreed then
that the victor was TO occupy the Pc
ruvian provinces of Tacna and africa
for ten wears. after which a plebisci-
tum was to declare whether those
provinces wanted to be Incorporate
with Chill or returned to Peru.
The days passed. however. without
any plebiscitum being taken. The
Chilians put it OFF, under this or that
preteXt, because, 1t Is claimed, they
wanted to coionize the provinces with
their own people and thus secure
majority in their favor at the holding
of the plebiscitum. 1t is asserted that
they sent their soldiers and all kinds
of people from the slums of the Chill
ian SeaDOrts.
Claims of Peru.
But Peru held that only legitimate
be entitled to vote at the plebiscitum.
and that the method OF voting and
the qualifications of the voters should
be determined by a special protocol,
as provided for in the Ancon treaty.
Chill at last consented to this, in 1898,
at a time when she anticipated a war
with the Argentine republic and feared
Peru might side with the latter. The
Billinghurst-La Zorro protocol was
then signed at Santiago and approved
by the Chilians. But Chill peacefully
arranged her dispute with Argentina
and her chamber of deputies did not
even discuss the question of the pro-
tocOl, which, being approved only by
the senate, remained a dead letter.
The question of the final ownership
of Tacoma and africa has thus remained
unsettled and Chill still occupies the
PROVINCES with the deliberate inten-
ton. according to many Gillian papers
and political speakers, of keeping them
forever. Still many Chilians admit
that the contamination of the two
provinces has produced no effect and
that they are as strongly attached to
their mother country as on the day
when they were taken from her, and
that the two provinces are eagerly
waiting for the day when they will be
freed from Gillian domination. Peru
makes an appeal to arbitration in or
der to settle peacefully the question of
the final ownership of these provinces.
United States Is Involved.
And here comes the point where the
United States and the Argentine re
public are 6I,aggeS~in1e the dispute.
The United States government. ohav-
ing invited all the Spanish-American
countries TO participate in the second
pan-American congress to be held at
Mexico in October, 1901. must have
been surprised to receive from the Chill
ian government d conditional accept
ance. Chilli, being aware that the con-
gress was to proclaim arbitration as
the only method to settle international
differences on this continent, answered
that it would send representatives to
the congress only on the condition that
arbitration should apply exclusively to
future disputes. The acceptance of
such a condition, it is pointed out,
would leave Chill free to act as She
pleased with reference to the annexa-
ton of Tacna and AFRICA
Meanwhile the people of Argentina
began to fear that the Chilians would
not accept the decision about the
Chilo-Argentina frontier limit ques-
ton, which had been submitted to the
arbitration of Queen Victoria. And,
as if to support and justify their fears,
! it is reported that the Gillian govern
ment has treSpaSsed upon the absolute
rights of the arbitrator in imposing the
obligation of limiting the award to
such and such points.
No wonder that. amid this mess of
conflicts, the governments are making
preparations for war. While Chill has
sent to Germany her favorite general
Korner, to buy guns and cannon, Peru
has dispatched on a similar errand her
former president, General Caceres and
the Argentine republic is drilling its
national guards. In addition, there is
about to be instituted in Chill COM
pulsory military service and the re-
grettable system of armed peace may
be inflicted upon the republics of South
America as a result of the fact that
Chill now holds over them sword
of Damocles through her unwillingness
to settle finally the old question of
| Tacna and africa.