Beagle Channel Cartography Since 1881 - The Argentine Change of Policy

The Argentine Change of Policy

In the course of time became noticeable in Argentina a position that worked continuously towards a new interpretation of the Boundary Treaty. For example, in 1885 appeared a map of Mariano Paz Soldán that continued the perpendicular in the Tierra del Fuego Island forth to the Antarctic, «a fanciful line unrelated to the Treaty basis of division» as stated by the Court of Arbitration. In 1891, the Argentine Government created an "International Boundaries Office" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in 1893 issued other decree providing that works on national geography already published should not be considered as officially approved unless accompanied by a "special statement" from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In 1889 appeared the "Carte de la République Argentine" as part of "L'Agriculture et l'Elevage dans la République Argentine", officially sponsored for the purposes of the Argentine participation in the Paris World Exhibition of 1889. In the work of which this map was a part, the version there given of the article III of the 1881 Treaty (Argentine attribution in the Islands clause), was seriously incorrect:

«…appartiendront à la République Argentine : l'île de los Estados, les îlots qui l'entourent et les autres îles de l'Atlantique au sud de la Terre de Feu et des côtes orientales de la Patagonie…» (stress added by Wikipedia)

(Transl.:«…to the Argentine Republic shall belong Staten Island, the islets that surround it, and the other Atlantic islands to the south of Tierra del Fuego and of the eastern coasts of Patagonia…») (stress added by Wikipedia)

instead of the original text:

«…to the Argentine Republic shall belong Staten Island, the small islands next to it, and the other islands on the Atlantic to the east of Tierra del Fuego and of the eastern coast of Patagonia…» (stress added by Wikipedia)

By the review of the cartography, the tribunal refused the validity of 3 in Argentina and 1 in London (by the Argentine Embassy) published maps. The maps are not disponible for now, but the court gave to every refuse a briefly map description (see text on the maps) that allowed us to rebuild the border line as showed at the left side.

In order to decide the validity of a map the court used following criterion for exclusion:

Footnote 102

Th¡s in two respects: (i) since under the first part of Article III of the Treaty, the perpendicular in the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego, from Cape Espíritu Santo to the Beagle Channel, was deliberately stopped there, a map showing a line of division which, by prolonging the perpendicular, crossed the Channel, and proceeded southward through the Murray Sound and past the Wollaston group, could not possibly represent the division contemplated by the Treaty; (ii) this map, thereby, and equally by colouring, showed, not only the PNL group, but also Navarino Island and the Hermite group, as Argentine. But these localities were "to the south of the Beagle Channel" according to any possible interpretation of that phrase in the Chilean attribution under the Islands clause of the Treaty.

The refused maps are:

1 Paz Soldán Map 1885, published by Carlos Beyer: This version prolonged the perpendicular to the Antarctic and was discarded: «this map, equally, showed a fanciful line unrelated to the Treaty basis of division».

2 Map published in 1887 by the Argentine Bureau of Information in London: The footnote 102 regards to this map. It was refused with the argument: «a completely fanciful line division that could have no possible warrant under the of 1881 Treaty». The map was corrected by the same Bureau on its map of the next year and the corrected map is linked here.

3 The "Lajouane" versions of the Paz Soldán maps This versions were published between 1887 and 1890: altogether we know 4 different interpretations of Paz Soldán of the 1881 Treaty, see section "Two maps of Argentina, Mariano Paz Soldán, 1888", (above), and two here (left). Such turnaround lead the tribunal to the conclusion: «Two volte-faces of this kind within one five-year period -for which no explanation seems to have been offered- must throw doubt on the credibility of the whole series of Paz Soldán based maps. It also raises the question of the reason for it.».

4 The Pelliza map was published 1888 and presented to the Court by Argentina as the first official Argentine map that represented the border line according to the 1881 Treaty.. There were several slight different versions of this map, by some ones the border line runs over the north shore of the channel and by others on the south shore of the channel. The Court refused this maps with following words: «This result, even if not absolutely underivable from any possible interpretation of the Treaty, is so eccentric that it can hardly be taken seriously».