Tacna-Arica Award

President Coolidge of the U. S., arbitrator of the Tacna-Arica dispute between Chile and Peru, handed down his award last week after 15 months of consideration by the U. S. State Department.

The Provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna and Arica, were seized by Chile in the Chile-Peruvian War. According to the Treaty of Ancon (1883, ratified 1884), which ended the war, the fate of the latter two Provinces was to be decided in 1894 by a plebiscite, after they had been under Chilean authority for ten years. If the Provinces reverted to Peru, the latter was to pay Chile $5,000,000; if the plebiscite favored Chile then Chile's right to the Provinces was to be considered absolute.

When 1894 came along, Chile was having boundary difficulties with Argentina ; Peru was turned upside down over the election of a successor to President Morales Bermudez. A plebiscite was then impossible. In after years, several unsuccessful attempts were made to settle the dispute; and an ugly situation was rapidly being created when U. S. President Harding suggested that the case be brought to Washington and submitted to arbitration. This offer was accepted and President Coolidge has made his award.

The dispute raged around Chile's contention that the question must be settled by plebiscite; Peru said that, owing to the fact that the population had been changed during the past 30 years, a plebiscite was no longer fair.

President Coolidge's award:

1) That the dispute be settled by plebiscite.

2) That a special commission, composed of one Chilean, one Peruvian and one U. S. citizen, be appointed within four months and assemble at Arica within six months to fix the date of the plebiscite. The conditions under which the plebiscite is to be held are partly favorable to Chile, partly to Peru, but all of them are designed to permit free and fair expression of the will of the people of Tacna and Arica.

3) That the northern boundary of the two Provinces is to be that claimed by Peru; that the southern boundary is to be fixed by a special commission along the old Peruvian inter-provincial boundary lines.

The President's ruling is final.