Two Queens to the Rescue

At the end of the 19th century, so vast was the empire of Queen Victoria and so prestigious her name that statesmen of lesser lands around the world often sought the counsel of her ministers. Thus it was only natural that in 1896, when Chile and Argentina could not agree on the precise location of parts of their 3,000-mile common border, they turned to London for a solution. Though Victoria died before the job was done, her son Edward VII produced an arbitrator's decision in 1902, and his ruling was accepted in every particular -- save one. Until now, that one exception has been a constant source of bickering between the Chileans and Argentines.

The sore point is called Palena by the Chileans and Rio Encuentro by the Argentines. It consists of 260 mountainous square miles inhabited by wind-battered trees, 240 people and a few head of hardy livestock -- in short, precious little and little precious. But because of a surveyor's faulty maps, the arbitrated border was inexactly placed, and regardless of the land's lack of value, both countries heatedly denounced the boundary. For years objections flew back and forth, but it was all fairly harmless until 1963, when Argentine gendarmes suddenly strung up a barbed-wire fence where they thought the border should be. The Chileans reacted with predictable enthusiasm. The Argentine embassy in Santiago was stoned, Argentine flags were burned, and the national police went on full alert. There was even talk of war, but cooler heads prevailed, and once again voices on both sides called for another round of British arbitration.

To many foreigners this seemed a bit odd, for by this time Britain had a squabble of her own with Chile and Argentina concerning some overlapping claims in Antarctica. Moreover, the Argentines and British were (and still are) counterclaiming sovereignty over the tiny Falkland Islands, 300 miles off Argentina's coast. But faith in British fair play survives, and in 1964 both countries agreed to let Elizabeth II finish what her great-great-grandmother started. Under her ruling, which has just been published, Argentina gets a carefully defined 71% of the disputed area, but in Chile's minority share is most of the useful and habitable land. The people of both sides thereby have something to take pride in. The governments are delighted to be rid of the problem. And the two countries will happily split the $168,000 cost of the arbitration.

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