Therefore,  in  ratification  of  the  earlier  declarations,
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Eelations  of  Chile  asserted,
in  his  Memorial  of  1894,  that  the  Treaty  of  October  20
"has  deferred  to  a  later  treaty,  consecrated  by  a
solemn  treaty,  and  of  absolutely  uncertain  results,  the
adjudication  of  the  dominion  of  those  territories."

In  his  Message  of  1900,  the  President  Sehor  Erra-
zuriz,  said,  on  his  part,  that  "in  the  Treaty  of  Peace
the  definitive  nationality  of  the  territories  of  Tacna
and  Arica  remained  undecided.' 9


395

Hence  also  the  same  Senor  Errazuriz  respected  the
international  engagement  in  the  Billinghurst-Latorre
Protocol  sanctioned  by  the  Senate ;  and  after  approv-
ing it  as  a  whole,  he  left  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in
suspense,  not  because  that  document  rescinded  any
convention,  but  in  order  that  the  Executive  Power
might  take  new  diplomatic  steps  to  carry  into  effect  the
third  Clause  of  the  Treaty,  which  stipulates  the  plebi-
scite by  popular  vote.
The  deduction  as  to  a  simulated  cession  or  conquest
of  the  territories  of  Tacna  and  Arica — drawn,  not  from
the  text  or  the  spirit  of  that  Treaty,  but  from  irrelevant
European  plebiscites — ought  therefore  to  be  rejected
absolutely.
It  is  not  true,  either,  Mr.  Minister,  that  to  Your  Ex-
cellency's Government  belongs  exclusively  the  right  to
designate  the  personnel  that  is  to  preside  over  the
plebiscitary  act,  whether  in  the  registration  of  the
electors,  in  the  taking  of  the  vote  or  in  the  announce-
ment of  the  result.
What  is  the  title  of  sovereignty  that  is  alleged  by
Chile  today  in  the  provinces  of  Tacna  and  Arica!

It  is  certainly  not  that  of  occupation,  which  the  law
authorizes  only  in  respect  of  res  nullius.
