" Would  Your  Excellency  convey,"  I  had  the  oppor-
tunity to  say  to  His  Excellency,  Mr.  Collier,  on  accept-
ing the  American  invitation,  "to  His  Excellency  the
Secretary  of  State,  and  to  His  Excellency  the  Presi-
dent of  the  United  States  for  his  high  intervention,
the  expressions  of  our  lasting  gratitude  for  the  great
opportunity  which  he  has  seen  fit  to  offer  us  for  begin-
ning direct  conferences  with  Peru,  which  may  lead  us
to  the  exact  and  loyal  execution  of  the  Treaty  of  An-
con, by  suitable  action  of  the  two  Governments  or,  by
other  friendly  means."

When  President  Harding,  in  his  note  of  January
29th  of  the  present  year,  told  Bolivia  that  the  Confer-
ences of  Washington  would  be  carried  on  in  order  to
reach  a  settlement  of-  the  difficulties  growing  out  of  the
unfulfilled  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  1883;  and
when  the  Government  of  Brazil,  in  a  note  to  our  Min-
ister in  Eio,  dated  February  6,  1922,  described  the  ne-
gotiations as  designed,  "to  amicably  agree  on  the  prac-
tical execution  of  certain  parts  of  the  Treaty  of  An-
con," they  set  forth  that  which  was  later  designated
by  the  same  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Hughes,  as  "the
terms  of  the  American  invitation."


599

We  did  not  go  to  Washington,  then,  without  know-
ing what  we  were  going  to;  we  have  not  taken  that
"jump  into  space,' '  to  which  a  noted  European  pub-
licist has  so  strongly  objected,  in  the  management  of
our  foreign  relations.
