CHILI-PERUVIAN TREATY.

Kumara Times, Issue 2401, 13 May 1884, Page 2

CHILI-PERUVIAN TREATY.

Advices afc Panama on March 27th say that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, replyiug to the protest of England against a clause in the treaty of peace between Peru and Chili ceding nitrate and guano beds to Chili, which England claimed guaranteed payment of Peruvian debt, says in substance that Peru in negotiating the treaty acted in virtue of the right she possessed as a Government —a right acknowledged from the moment of her independence by all nations, and she cannot consent to any foreign interference with her rights as a Sovereign and independent State, without advocating or jeopardising those prerogatives which she had always respected in other nations. The debts originated from loans effected with private parties, regarding whose nationality the Government never thought proper to iopuire. Those debts have never assumed an international character; although they may now be partly held in English hands, yet at any time they may be transferred to persons of any other nationality. Peru owes nothing to England as a Governor a State, and consequently the loans referred to cannot be made the subject of diplomatic influence. It is a matter of public notoriety that for four years past the mortgaged property has" not been in the possession of Peru, yet during that time cargoes of nitrate and guano from the property have been sold in foreign parts without protest.