File No. 4878/10.
Minister Sorsby to
the Secretary of State.
[Extract.]
American Legation,
La
Paz, March 28,
1907.
No. 311.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a
legalized copy, with translation, of an agreement arranged at Buenos
Aires, Argentine on January 12 last, between representatives of Bolivia,
Paraguay, and Argentine for a final settlement of the long-standing
Bolivia-Paraguay boundary and territorial dispute.
In this connection I have also the honor to report that Dr. Juan M.
Saracho, acting minister for foreign affairs, and the actual minister of
justice and public instruction, willingly complied with my request for a
copy of the agreement for transmission to the department, and later
requested that I transmit in conjunction therewith a map showing the
territory in dispute; the several proposed boundary lines as embodied in
three previous protocols; Puerto Pacheco, situated in the disputed
territory, and for the cession of which Bolivia, for reasons of commerce
set forth in the accompanying memorandum, seems to be disposed to
concede more of the disputed territory than she ever has before; Puerto
Corumba, a Brazilian port, and which, in the present unsettled state of
the Bolivian boundary question, controls the river transportation for
that particular region.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure
1—Translation.]
Drs. Claudio Pinilla, minister of foreign relations for Bolivia, and
Adolfo Soler, minister of the treasury for Paraguay, duly authorized
by their respective Governments, having met in the city of Buenos
Aires in honor of the friendly mediation of the Government of the
Republic of Argentine, for the purpose of discussing to a
conciliatory and friendly solution respecting the question of the
boundary dispute existing between the respective countries, after
having studied the several propositions presented by the high
parties, litigants, and by the minister of foreign affairs for the
Argentine Republic, Dr. Estanislao S. Zeballos, have agreed to
accept the following solution proposed by the latter in the
conference of to-day.
Article I.
The high contracting parties agree to submit the question pending to
the decision of His Excellency the honorable President of the
Argentine Republic.
Article II.
The zone submitted to said arbitration is understood to be that
between parallel 20° 30’ and the line which they sustain in their
allegations north of the Paraguay, in the interior of the territory,
between meridians 61° 30’ and 62° of Greenwich.
Article III.
Both ministers will ratify this convention within four months from
its date, and in consequence their plenipotentiaries in Asuncion,
Doctors Cano and Dominguez, shall subscribe to this agreement of
limited arbitration, which shall necessarily be submitted to the
respective Congresses for approval at the first ordinary
sessions.
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Article IV.
The plenipotentiaries of the high contracting parties are to be
opportunely designated for the purpose of presenting to the
President of the Argentine Republic, within the period of thirty
days from the congressional approval, an exposition of the titles
and evidence in support of their rights.
Article V.
The President of the Argentine Republic will decide the controversy
with respect to the rights of the high contracting parties, in
conformity with the titles and evidence submitted.
Article VI.
In case that one of the high contracting parties should fail to
obtain the ratification referred in Article III, the respective
plenipotentiaries at Asuncion will negotiate an agreement fixing the
zone to be submitted to the arbitration agreed upon, and in the
meanwhile the statu quo referred to in the
following article is understood shall be continued.
Article VII.
Pending the process of complying with this convention, the high
contracting parties compromise from this moment not to change nor to
advance the position of their possessions as they to-day exist.
In no case can this statu quo be suspended
before the expiration of one year from the date fixed by Article
III.
The statu quo shall be loyally observed under
the guarantee of the Argentine Government.
The present agreement to be signed in three identical copies.
Made in Buenos
Ayres, capital of the Republic of Argentine,
January 12,
1907.
(Signed)
Clatjdio
Pinilla.
(Signed)
A. R. Soler.
A true copy.
(Signed)
José
Salinas,
First Secretary of
Foreign Affairs.
[Inclosure 2—Translation.]
[Extract.]
Bolivia owns the territory embraced in the whole of the extension
which during colonial period pertained to the Court of Charcas. In
virtue of which and conformable to the Uti Possidetis of 1810, she
alleges the right to all of the Chaco Boreal between the rivers
Paraguay and Pilcomayo and the province of Chiquitos, of the
Department of Santa Cruz. On the other hand, Paraguay also alleges
ownership to the region of, the Chaco, founding her claim upon
several ancient possessions, such as Fortress Borbon and others.
The litigation of the frontiers between both countries is of long
duration, and has given rise to three treaties known by the names of
the signers, as follows: 1879, Quijarro-Decoud; 1887, Tamayo-Aceval;
and 1895, Ichazo-Benites. None of these treaties were accepted by
the Paraguayan Congress, and the efforts of Bolivia for the solution
of this matter always encountered the denial of the congress of that
country, despite the fact that the Bolivian Government and congress
approved the first two.
Senor Claudio Pinilla, passing through Buenos Aires, celebrated the
accompanying agreement, which has been approved by the Government of
Bolivia and will also certainly be approved by that of Paraguay. As
an offering to continental peace and in preservation of her
commercial and customs liberty Bolivia finds it necessary to accept
a new (another) segregation of her territory. In effect, the
oriental region of Bolivia, embracing an extensive territory rich in
mines and of an extraordinary fertility, must send its import and
export commerce to the Atlantic via the river Paraguay and the
Plate, but encounters the inconvenience of having to pass through
Brazilian territory, where the merchandise
[Page 89]
destined for Bolivia, and those exported by
Bolivia, by this route, is made to suffer innumerable charges, such
as obliging boats destined for Puerto Suarez (Bolivia) to discharge
at Puerto de Corumba (Brazil) and to pay enormously high wharfage
and fines; and finally, the packages are opened with great prejudice
to Bolivian merchants. But even yet the onerous charges to which
these small vessels making the service between Corumba and Puerto
Suarez are subjected are such that in various instances the
transport of navigation cost as much as the freight, on the same
shipment, from Montevideo to Corumba, separated from twelve to
fourteen days of navigation.
The Pinilla-Soler agreement, therefore, satisfies the practical needs
of Bolivia; giving it a port of its own upon the river Paraguay to
the north of parallel 20° 30’, where Puerto Pacheco, in the
highlands of Chamacocos, is situated. This port, which will be the
point of the beginning of the railway to Santa Cruz de la Sierra,
possesses great interest not alone with respect to the commercial
independence of Bolivia, but also for the American company building
the railways of the interior; which system must, in the course of
its development, connect with that of Santa Cruz in order to have an
additional line for commercial interchange.
