THE NEW CONQUEST OF PERU.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2276, 19 July 1881, Page 3

THE NEW CONQUEST OF PERU.

[" Pall Mall Budget."]

The war which began in the spring of 1879 between Ohili and its two northern neighbors has not yet come to a close. For two years the struggle has been carried on by land and sea, and although Peru is now prostrate and helpless at the feat of her Ob'lian conqueror, the last recorded act of President Pierola has been to declare his resolution to continue the war, and the latest news from Bolivia represents the Bolivians as engaged in military preparations to resist an expected Chilian advance across the Andes. In this protraoted and ferocious war the combatants have lost more than the total number of troops they had under arms when they first appealed to the sword. Chili's peace establishment in 1878 consisted of 3573 men. She had loßt 3276 killed, 5610 wounded, without comting 390 prisoners. Bolivia possessed a small force of 2000 men ; 920 Bolivians have been killed, 1210 wounded, and 300 taken prisoners. The losses of the Peruvians have been the most serious. At the end of 1878 Peru possessed a force of 13,200 men of all arms. At the close of two years' fighting she has to deplore the loss of 9672 killod, 4431 wounded, while 7020 have been taken prisoners. In spite of these heavy losses and of the fact that the Chilian commander-in-chief has his head-quarters in the Government House of the Peruvian capital, it is doubtful whether even now the contest is likely to come to an end. The situation in Peru is complicated by the fact that while President Pierola at a small place four days' journey from Lima is declaring his resolve to carry on war a outrance, the people of Lima and Callao have installed Don FranoißCO Garcia Calderon as President at Magdalena, five miles from the capital, where he is said to have signed a preliminary treaty of peace. Peru, therefore, at this moment, has two Governments of her own in addition to the yoke that is opposed upon her from without. Pierola has part of the interior of the Republic at his baok, and he may possibly be able to depend on the support of Arequipa. Calderon is nominated by the leading Peruvians of the capital; but, as Lima is patrolled by Chilians, he is represented as the mere nominee of the foreign conqueror, and his Government is denounced as a device for legalising the perpetual pillage of Peru. When the last attempt was made to bring about peace by the mediation of the United States, the conference of Arioa broke up wishout aohieving any result, owing to the obstinate refusal of the Peruvians and Bolivians to cede any territory to their conquerors. Chili insisted as the first condition of peace on the cession of the seaboard province immediately adjoining her northern frontier. To this demand the allies opposed the formula of M. Jules Favre, "Not a stone of our fortresses, not an inoh of territory." Territorial conquest they said, might be tolerated in the Old World ; it could not be admitted in the New. The principle of annexation was alien to American soil. As Chili insisted on the Old World doctrine that the loser must pay, the Conference broke up and the war recommenced. Since then Lima has fallen into the hands of Chili. Chilian troops answer for order in the streets of the Peruvian capital, and Chilian sergeants keep the predatory roughs of Lima in awe by the vigor with which they apply the cat-o'-nine-tails to the backs of evil doers. The Chilians alone stand between Lima and anarchy. If their twelve thousand soldiers were withdrawn, there is no Peruvian force left to prevent the pillage of the city by a hungry mob, or the proclamation of the Commune and the establishment of a Bed terror. According to the last letter in the American papers from Lima the provisional President Calderon had signed a preliminary treaty of peace, \ which has yet to be submitted to the Peruvian Congress for ratification. The terms of that treaty are said to be much more moderate than those mentioned by the Valparaiso "Mercury." Thoy were, in brief, the cession of the province of Tarapaca and the occupation by a Chilian army of tho ports of Tacna and Ariea until a heavy war indemnity is paid. It is doubtful whether thiß moderate version can be oorreot. Even in last October, before Lima fell, Chili proposed to occupy the provinces of Tacna and Moquequa, to forbid the fortification of Arica, and to lay an interdict upon any future alliances between Peru and Bolivia. If the more stringent terms desoribed by the Valparaiso "Mercury " are insisted on, Peru virtually ceases to exist as an independent State. By them Peru cedes outright the provinces of Antofagasta, Tarapaca, and Tacna, and confers upon Chili the right of keeping a garrison of 10,000 men at the expense of Peru in any Peruvian ports she may deem fit until a crushing indemnity has beon paid in full by the proceeds of the guano shipped from the the Peruvian islands. Every penny spent by Ohili in the war is included in the indemnity, which also covers compensation for damage done to Chilian subjects, and in fact of every expense caused by the war. As if this were not enough, it is said that Chili will insist upon forbidding Peru to fortify her ports for fifty years or to acquire a navy for forty. Terms such as these amount to the extinction of the State. If they are insisted on, Pern will become a Chilian dependency, from which Chili will receive vast revenues, but for the Government of which Chili would undertake no responsibility. It might be bettor for the Peruvians if Ohili wero to annex their country outright.