Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-08
Chilli
INSISTS ON ROBBINd PERU OF
HER PROVINCES.
ARBITRATE WITH THE SWORD.
Both Countries Buying Arms Abroad
Old Agreements Are Of No
Force.

Correspondence of the Associated Press.
Valparaiso, Chile, August 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. It was agreed then that
the victor was to occupy the Peruvian
provinces of Tacna and africa for ten
years after which a plebiscitum was to
declare whether those provinces wanted
to be incorporated with Chill or returned
to Peru. The days passed off, however.
without any plebiscitum being taken.
The Chilians put it off, under this or
that pretext. because, it is claimed, they
wanted to lion the provinces with
their own people and thus secure a ma
jority in their favor at the holding Of
the plebiscitum. It is asserted that
people from the slums of the Chilian
seaports. But Peru held that only
legitimate natives of the two provinces
should be entitled to vote at the pie
biscitum, and that the method of voting
and the qualifications of the voters
should be determined by a special pro.
tocol, 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 Toro protocol was
then signed at Santiago and approved
by the Gillian senate. But Chill peace
fully arranged her dispute with Argen-
tina. and her chamber of deputies did
not even discuss the question Of the
protocol, which, being approved only by
the senate, remained a dead letter.
The question of the final ownership OF
Tacna and africa has thus remained I'M
co{%1ol ND GI1t1s at 10,sN; %I~ $500,
inces. with the deliberate intention, ac-
cording to man Gillian papers and po-
litical speakers, of keeping them forever.
Still, many Chilians admit that the
"Chilianization" 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 prov
inces are eagerly waiting for the day
when they will be freed from Gillian
domination. Peru makes an appeal to
arbitration in order to settle peacefully
the question of the final ownership of
these provinces. And here comes the
/ point where the United States and the
Argentine Republic are dragged into the
| dispute.
| The United States government, having
invited all the Spanish-American coun-
trise to participate in the second Pan
American congress-, to be held at Mexico
in October, 1901, u have been sur
| prised to receive from the CHILEAN gov
eminent a conditional acceptance. Chill.
being aware that the congress was to
proclaim arbitration as the only method
to settle international differences { this
continent, answered that it would send
representatives to the congress only on
the condition that arbitration should ap-
ply exclusively to future disputes. The
acceptance Of such a condition.. it is
| pointed out, would leave Chilli free tc
act as she pleased with reference to the
annexation of Tacna and africa.
Meanwhile the people of Argentina
| began to fear that the Chilians would
not accept the decision about the Chile