803 310 804 Same to same (telegram)... Oct. 27 Mr. Hay to Mr. Loomis Nov. 2 Nov. 7 do.. ade. Same subject. If blockade effective, it must be .do... Same subject. Advises in favor of recognition .do 345 Same to same... ..do Same subject. Same tenor as above... Same subject. Instructs to insist on ship's papers 804 806 808 808 784 808 809 788 791 1899. Nov. 18 Nov. 20 do... Revolution in Venezuela and recognition of de Same subject. Refers to Department's telegram ¦ Ship's papers. Decree that same are to be de- do...! Same subject. Account of capture of Puerto Nov. 28 Mr. Hay to Mr. Loomis..... Dec. 4 ment. Ship's papers. Decree that same are to be de- Revolution in Venezuela and recognition of de 809 809 791 809 810 811 792 812 CORRESPONDENCE. No. 643.] ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. ARGENTINE-CHILE BOUNDARY DISPUTE.1 Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Hay. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I am now able to inform you that this Govennment has received word that the British Government has recently named the Right Honorable Lord McNaughton, Maj. Gen. J. C. Ardagh, and Col. Sir T. H. Holdich as a commission to examine and study the treaties and documents which may be presented by the Argentine and Chilean Governments bearing upon the limits controversy between the latter countries which they have referred to the Government of Great Britain for arbitration, as you are aware from previous dispatches. Their commission will have a rather knotty problem to solve at the outset, since there will unquestionably be presented to it two distinctly different translations of the first article of the ArgentineChilean treaty of 1881-the foundation stone of the whole controversy which has been since carried on between the two countries-as to whether or not the "watershed" theory should apply to the demarcation problem existing between the two countries. The chief contention before the commission just named will be, I am sure, over what the proper meaning of "vertientes" is in Spanish, and the correct equivalent of the word in English. The word I refer to, it will be remembered by those who have followed the origin of the limits difficulty between the two countries, occurs between the first and second periods in article 1 of the Argentine-Chilean treaty of 1881, negotiated, as is well known, through the medium of our legations here and in Santiago de Chile. The original scheme for the treaty was proposed by Chile and presented to this Government by our minister here. In the scheme, article 1 read as follows: Base primera: El límite entre Chile y la República Argentina es, de norte á sud hasta el paralelo 52 de latitud, la cordillera de los Andes. La línea fronteriza correrá en esa estensión por las cumbres más elevadas de dichas cordilleras que dividan las aguas. * * * This Government stated in reply that the article would be accepted "with a small addition to complement it." 1See Foreign Relations, 1898, p. 1. FR 99- -1 1 The article as thus changed by the Argentine Government and afterwards approved by both countries reads as follows, the words in italic being those added by this Government: Articulo 1. El límite entre la República Argentina y Chile es, de norte á sur, hasta el paralelo 52 de latitud, la cordillera de los Andes. La línea fronteriza correrá en esa extensión por las cumbres más elevadas de dichas cordilleras que dividan las aguas y pasará por entre las vertientes que se desprenden á un lado y otro. * * * Chile has persistently claimed that the part of the phrase added by the Argentine Government means "watershed." This Government has, as persistently, denied that it so means. It will, therefore, be interesting to you, I am sure, to note, in the pamphlet I am forwarding you under separate cover, the definition given by Dr. Emilio Lamarca, in the translation he has made for the Argentine ministry of foreign relations, of the word "vertientes" occurring in the article of the treaty to which I referred. Dr. Lamarca was at one time translator in the Argentine foreign office and is now one of the most widely known and proficient attorneys in this city. He is also an excellent linguist, and I therefore need not say great confidence is placed in the presentation he has made of his foundation for the translation of the 1881 treaty he has thus made. You will notice he calls attention to and challenges the translation of the treaty printed both in our Foreign Relations and in the British State Papers. The wide difference between his translation of "vertientes" and that made by Chilean writers, and, by whoever it was who translated the 1881 treaty for our legation here, as also by the translator in the case of the British foreign office, consists, as will be seen, in this: Dr. Lamarca does not believe the word "vertiente" has anything to do with water, whereas all the remaining have so connected the word. I have, etc., WILLIAM I. BUCHANAN. Mr. Hay to Mr. Buchanan. No. 481.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: The Department has received and read with much interest your dispatch No. 643, of February 23, reporting the appointment of the British commission to examine the Argentine-Chilean documents bearing on the boundary controversy, and making certain observations as to the various interpretations of the meaning of article 1 of the Argentine-Chilean treaty of 1881, particularly with reference to the different translations of article 1, printed in the Foreign Relations and British State Papers and by the Argentine department of foreign affairs published in the pamphlet by Dr. Lamarca, of which you transmit copy. The text of the translation of the treaty of 1881, published by this Government in the volume of Foreign Relations for that year, page 12, was communicated to this Department by the United States minister, General Osborn, in his dispatch No. 338, of October 27, 1881. The version sent was merely a press clipping taken from an English paper published in Buenos Ayres, and was unaccompanied by the Spanish text. Had the Department been in possession of the Spanish text of the treaty, it would doubtless at the time have noted the faulty translation of the press clipping, which rendered "vertientes" by "springs" instead of declivities or slopes," and "pasar por entre "by "to cross" instead of "to pass between." 66 66 In view of the importance which has been given to the publication of this translation in the volume of Foreign Relations, it may be advisable for you to take a favorable opportunity to state to the Argentine minister of foreign affairs that the translation was in no sense an official one, and that this Government can have no responsibility in any claim which may be advanced by either party as to its correctness by reason of such publication in a United States document. I am, etc., Mr. García Mérou to Mr. Hay. JOHN HAY. LEGATION OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, MR. SECRETARY: In obedience to instructions which I have just received by telegraph from the minister of foreign relations of the Argentine Republic, I have the honor to inform your excellency that my Government is deeply grateful to his excellency William I. Buchanan, minister of the United States, for the important service which he has just rendered to it by greatly contributing to the settlement of the boundary question between the Argentine Republic and Chile, as regards the territory situated between 23 degrees and 26 degrees 52 minutes 45 seconds, thus removing all grounds of misunderstanding in the relations between the two countries. I gladly obey the instructions received, and take pleasure in renewing to your excellency the assurances of my highest and most distinguished consideration. M. GARCÍA MÉROU. Mr. Hay to Mr. Buchunan. No. 487.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I inclose a copy of a note from the Argentine minister at this capital, expressing the gratitude of his government to you for your services in greatly contributing to the settlement of the Puna de Atacama boundary question between the Argentine Republic and Chile. I am, etc., JOHN HAY. Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Hay. No. 700.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 481, of April 11 last, in which you refer to the translation of the ArgentineChilean treaty of 1881, which appears in our Foreign Relations for |