724.3415/302: Telegram

The Paraguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs ( Zubizarreta ) to the Chairman of the International Conference of American States on Conciliation and Arbitration ( Kellogg )

[Translation]

I have had the honor of receiving your cable transmitting the expression of wishes of the Conference on Arbitration under your worthy chairmanship, inspired by noble ideals of comity and fraternity which my Government is the first in furthering. On conveying [Page 687] to that Conference, through Your Excellency’s high intermediary, that this Government fully shares those feelings, it takes pleasure in stating that upon requesting the call of the Commission created by the treaty signed May 3, 1923 at the International Conference of American States the Paraguayan Government has offered effective evidence thereof. Unfortunately the Paraguayan Government has not met until this moment with the just and due correspondence on the part of Bolivia, who, upon challenging a peaceful procedure of justice, announces her determination to exact prior satisfaction which she says is due her because of facts the investigation of which she refuses, thus setting herself as judge of her own actions and of alleged offenses. Both my country and my Government can tell the world at large that if peace were disturbed the responsibility for such a crime of lese civilization and humanity could justly be ascribed to Bolivia. Paraguay is and has always been disposed to submit to legal means the settlement of her difficulties.

Geronimo Zubizarreta