On  October  13,  1886,  the  Peruvian  Minister,  Senor
Elias,  made  a  formal  request  of  the  Chilean  Govern-
ment  for  the  return  of  the  districts  of  the  province  of
Tarata  which  had  been,  he  asserted,  occupied  by
Chilean  forces  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the  Govern-
ment of  Chile  had  fallen  into  an  error  in  taking  the
Tarata  tributary,  as  the  continuation  of  the  River
Sama. (Appendix,  p. 11.)

This  request  was  repeated  on  March  5,  1887,  when
a  special  memorandum  and  map  on  the  subject  were
laid  before  the  Foreign  Office  of  Chile  in  support  of
the  request. The  description  in  the  memorandum  of
the  Estique  and  Tarata  Rivers  follows  in  general  that
of  the  Billinghurst  report  above  mentioned. (Appen-
dix, p. 13.)

On  April  14,  1887,  the  Chilean  Government  replied
to  the  request  of  the  Peruvian  Minister  to  the  effect
that  a  study  had  been  made  of  the  memorandum  and
map  submitted  to  it,  and  that,  the  Government  was
persuaded  that  the  question  involved  was  a  geographi-
cal one  calling  for  exact  topographic  knowledge  of  the
region. Therefore,  it  again  proposed  that  a  Chilean-
Peruvian  commission  of  experts  be  appointed  and  sent
to  the  points  in  question  for  the  purpose  of  investiga-
ting and  of  fixing,  in  accordance  with  scientific  princi-
ples, the  true  source  and  course  of  the  River  Sama,  for
the  effects  contemplated  in  the  Treaty  of  1883. (Appen-
dix, p. 17.)

Again  in  1890,  although  Peru  had  not  replied  to  the
last  Chilean  proposal  for  a  joint  commission  of  ex-
perts, the  Peruvian  Minister,  in  connection  with  legis-
lation then  pending  in  the  Chilean  Congress,  which  had
to  do  with  the  organization  of  departments  in  the  area
over  which  Chile  held  dominion  and  sovereignty,  called
the  attention  of  the  Chilean  Government  to  what  he


The  Third  Question. 163

termed  the  unwarranted  occupation  of  a  part  of  Ta-
rata. (Appendix,  pp. 21;  562.)

Nevertheless  the  Chilean  Government  maintained
its  position,  and  finally,  on  October  1,  1890,  the  Peru-
vian Government  declined  to  participate  in  the  pro-
posed joint  commission. (Appendix ,  p. 