724.3415/244: Telegram

The Minister in Paraguay (Kreeck) to the Secretary of State

26. Continuing telegram No. 25.58 Dr. Eusebio Ayala, former Paraguayan Minister in Washington, is now on his way to Montevideo officially to request Uruguayan Government to convoke Commission of Inquiry provided by the Gondra Treaty. Official Paraguayan note to Bolivia gives notice of its action in the following words:

“My Government, on deploring the necessity in which it has been placed by resorting to this proceeding, is pleased in declaring its decision of not using its means of defense except in case of being compelled to repel an aggression and its plan of confiding the solution of its questions to legal arbitrators. Your Excellency’s Government should give this note the status of the official communication to which the second article of the treaty mentioned refers.”

Presence of Bolivian troops at Menonipple [Mennonite] colony reported despatch No. 665 en route59 is additional evidence of Bolivian aggression. Latest information concerning conflict: Bolivian forces, 22 dead or critical; wounded unknown; 29 taken prisoner, including two officers. Paraguayan: no fatalities, several wounded. Bolivian troops in district of conflict, 4800; Paraguayan, 1600. Quiet reigns, acclaim for peace is everywhere here.

Kreeck
  1. Ante, p. 681.
  2. Despatch No. 675, Dec. 5 (not printed) is probably the despatch under reference.