CHILI-PERUVIAN TREATY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1696, 28 May 1884, Page 2

CHILI-PERUVIAN TREATY.

Advices at Panama on March 27th say the Minister of Foreign Affairs, replying to the protest of England against a clause in the treaty of peace between Pern 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 possesed as a Government—a right acknowledged from the moment of her independance by all nations, and she cannot consent to any foreign interference with her rights as a Sovereign and indeperidant State, without ndvocatic,' 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 enquire. Those debts liavo 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 Government or a State, and consequently the loans referred to cannot be made the subjectof diiilomaticinduence. 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.