Foreign News: Plebiscite

Last week in the town of Arica, capital of the Chilean Province of Arica, began the last act of the drama called the Tacna-Arica dispute—a dispute to which Peru and Chile are parties

Precisely what occurred was the opening session of the Tacna-Arica Plebiscitary Commission, General John J. Pershing in the Chair; Señor Agustin Edwards,* head of the Chilean delegation, in another chair; Señor Freyre, head of Peru’s delegation, in a third chair. They had assembled to decide the terms under which a plebiscite, ordered by Arbitrator Calvin Coolidge (TIME, Mar. 16), is to be held to decide the future sovereignty of the Provinces of Tacna and Arica, wrested from Peru in the War of the Pacific, 1879 to 1883.

General Pershing, punctilious President of the Commission, patted both Chile and Peru on the back in language that might have caused a professional diplomat’s cheeks to suffuse with fiery shame. Urbanities over, he came soldierly to the point:

Precisely, our mission is to hold an election through which those entitled to express their wishes at the polls shall have free opportunity to vote without interference according to the dictates of their consciences. . . .

The Government of the United States has no ambition other than to aid in the attainment of these aims. . . . As delegates our loftiest hope is to promote the interests of peace. … It is in this spirit that we consecrate ourselves to the task before us.

It is the duty of the Plebiscitary Commission to function under the award and construe its meaning, but we may not alter, amend or revise it.

The arbitrator [Mr. Coolidge] has said that the award makes ample provision for consideration by the Plebiscitary Commission of all questions involving the qualifications of voters and the prevention of fraud with a view to insuring every qualified elector the right to vote, and that the powers of the Plebiscitary Commission as providedin the award are ample guarantee to every qualified voter of full assurancethat his vote may be freely cast and will be fairly counted. . . .

Distinguished Señor Edwards of Chile replied impassionately :

Today, sir, we embark on the final and decisive stage of a controversy that for 31 years interrupted the friendship of two peoples made neighbors and brothers by the hand of God, intended by Him to live not only in peace but in close and perfect union.

The noble initiative of the President of the United States, the good judgment of the peoples of Peru and Chile and the wisdom of their rulers made it possible to find in President Harding first, and in President Coolidge afterward, an artisan who should repair the broken link by laying down rules for carrying out the only unfullfilled clause of the treaty which sealed peace after four years of war. He, having agreed to be our arbitrator, gave us those rules, and it was resolved that under his Excellency’s wise, masterly guidance we should form a commission to supervise their execution.

Your Excellency can rely on receiving from the Chilean member of the Plebiscitary Commission that unconditional cooperation that you cannot but need in order to scrupulously fulfill and cause to be fulfilled each and every one of the decisions of the award.

Let us hope it will be the last, for such an act implies the existence of differences unwarranted by geographical and racial circumstances on this continent. Chile . . . will do all in her power to help America exhibit this plebiscite to the world as a model and as a genuine expression of that self-determination of peoples which is the axle on which revolves the very political existence of the New World.

Señor Freyre appeared to be somewhat uncomfortable. Despite the declared good intentions of General Pershing and Señor Edwards, he insisted, which seemed unnecessary, on a fair poll, “the establishment of an atmosphere of security among all Peruvian voters so that they will have a sense of utter confidence in exemption from all restraint.”

*Señor Edwards was President of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1923.