Evening star., 1922-05-15

your agreement Will not only Demon
strate your wisdom and lofty con-
ceptions of duty. but will furnish the
world with a needed and inspiring
example OF the practice of peace.
Tho government of the United
States gives you welcome and god
speed"
Hope for Settlement.
Luis Izquierdo was delegated to
respond for Chile and Melton Porras
for Peru. In prepared addresses each
declared the willingness Of his gov
ernment to accept a fair and Just
settlement and the hope Of his dele
cation that the negotiations would
be success.
One of the most distinguished
gatherings Washington has seen in
many years made up the list Of in
vited guests. Special rows of seats
were reserved for all the members
Of the foreign diplomatic corps here
and for members Of the cabinet and
other high officials of the United
States government. Brilliant decora-
tions. in which the colors Of Chile and
Peru predominated, were arranged
for the occasion about the meeting
place in the Hall of the Americas.
the end OF the hall places were
marked for the two delegates and
their two Peruvian colleagues. A
chair also was placed temporarily at
the table for Secretary Hughes,
chairman of the conference for today
only. At the beginning of the real
work of the negotiations tomorrow
no representatives of the United
States will be present.
First Meeting in Twelve Years.
Today's session was the first oc-
casion in twelve years when fully
accredited plenipotentiaries Of Chile
and Peru had been placed side by
side at a council table 1t marked a
resumption of diplomatic relations
formally broken of in 1910, although
there have been a number of diplo-
matte exchanges since by round
about channels.
In the spirit which animated the
opening day diplomatic observers here
professed to see unusual promise of
success for the conference. Chilean.
Peruvian and United States officials
all Joined in the prevailing optimism,
although they realized that with the
impetus Of the public session a thing
of the past the two delegations were
certain to encounter many difficulties
when they actually started to clear
away the accumulated grievances of
generation.
So far as the preliminary discussions
have furnished any forecast of the
trend of the negotiations, they have
indicated that one Of the biggest
problems Of the conference might de-
velop very quickly when the plenipo-
tentiaries attempt to agree on the
scope of the issues to be considered
here. In all her previous expressions
Peru has maintained that not only the
little tract of Tacna-Arica was in dis
pute, but that she desired q broad ad-
justment of all the other issues grow
ing out of the war Of the Pacific
is sovereignty over Tacna-Arica.
The utterances Of the statesmen of
the three nations Secretary Hughes,
Luis Izquierdo and Melton Porras,
were received with re-echoing ap-
plause by a distinguished gathering
OF officials, including the diplomatic
representatives of most of the gov
ernments OF the world.
Entirely Of a preliminary character,
the opening session lasted but twenty
minutes, and gave little index to the
possible trend Of the private negotia-
tions, to begin tomorrow. Some in
dication, however, was given by
veiled references to what many OBJ
servers believe may become the sharp
est immediate issue. definition of the
exact scope Of the conference.
Three times In his brief address
Senior Izquierdo referred to the pur-
pose OF the Washington negotiations
as an effort to make effective the
''unfulflled provisions" Of the treaty
Of Ancon. DR.. Porras made no specific
reference to the issue, but defined the
conference as one resigned to end
"the controversy Of the Pacific"
In these two expressions the Wash
ington discussions were given an i'm
mediate point OF departure, based
upon the traditional policies of the
two governments over the scope of
the questions in dispute between
them.