The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-12-21

NOT HELD AS
IS PROPOSED
AS Some of the Nations Fail to
Respond to Invitations
Sent Them.
SSG1oSS3FTrS Tp :, 4 q As,ociated Eressl

GGorTsSpondence OF Associated Pressl
SANTIAGO, Chile. Dec. 21-The
failure of the prop osed A B. c. CON
ference, which was to have met in
prompted editorial comment through
out the entire continent and the echo
Is yet reverberating.
DIT. Lauro Muller, the prime min.
lister of the Brazilian cabinet. is said
to have invited the Chilean and Ar
genuine governments to send dele
gates to a conference to be held at
Rio de Janerio on November IS, the
twenty-seventh anniversary of the
proclamation OF the republic of Bra
zil
was not made public. but 1t was un-
derstood that DR.. Muller desired the
nations named to enter into peace
pact binding each to submit to arbi-
tratfon and dispute and in any event
to wait one year before resorting to
arms. The republic OF Chile accepted
the invitation as did Argentine tenta.
lively. a change of government in
the latter country came before the
date of the suggested meeting and
the new foreign minister strongly OPP
posed the plan. AS it was necessary
for the Argentine Congress to ratify
so, Brazil was notified that its neigh
Dor would not participate. Chile then
withdrew its acceptance.
The most radical comment on the
affair was published in Chilean
journal of socialistic tendencies. I'm
der the caption: Uruguay, the Ser
bta Of South America, the writer
claimed that a general South Ameri-
can war was Inevitable as had been
the great European conflict for years
before the flare of August, 1914.
peace pact with its neighbors while
the matter of the La Plattta boundary
lines is in dispute said the author,
This line runs in mid-channel where
the river, between forty and, at
places, sixty miles wide, separates
Uruguayan from Argentian terri
tory.
The Argentine government has
spent immense sums in dredging the
river from its mouth off the port of
Monte Video to a point opposite
200 miles, in order that large ocean
steamers might continue to dock in
the Argentine metropolis. A series
of islands once claimed by uruguay
are now held on the other side to be
Argentinan because of the great eX-
penditures in improving the river
channel. This, together with a boun-
dairy dispute between Brazil and the
Argentine has, according to the
Chilean author, made the relations
between the three countries some
what uncertain.
The writer maintains that II is well
known in Chile that secret alliance
of both an offensive and defensive
character has for some time existed
between Uruguay and Brazil. What
will Chile's attitude be in the event
of a crisis?" he asks and proceeds to
answer by saying that undoubtedly
his OWL. country would Join the Bra
zilian-UTuguayans alliance. While
we have no boundary dispute with
the Argentine he continues, wye
Peru. Thirty-six years ago we won
by conquest its rich territories OF
Tacna ard africa. Today we hold
them 5still by force of arms. We have.
not Co1onized them. They are not.l
yet Chileanlzed. OF the 1900 in-'
Chilean, but OF these latter, 256005I
ian, $500 Peruvians and 3,000El
Chileans, but o. fthese latter, 2,60OEl
form the military garrison and the
remaining 90 are civil employees or
servants, of the military. The people
of the district call for a plebiscite to
determine to which government they
belong and the Chilean government
dare not acede to their request. Peru
knows this and would welcome a war
which would help it regain its lost
provinces. So in the final wind-up
we shall find Argentina and Peru
pitted against Brazil Chile and Uru-
quay
The views 81 this writer are IN no