724.3415/309: Telegram
The Minister in Bolivia (Kaufman) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 28—8:40 a.m.]
70. In a conversation this afternoon the Foreign Minister informed me that the Bolivian Government had received and was considering the protocol drafted by the Washington Conference. He said that while his Government found the draft satisfactory in the main yet he wished to point out that Bolivia could not accept the use of the word “frontier” as applied in the protocol to the present line of defense in the Chaco. He urged me to explain to the Department that Bolivia was not unappreciative and was not attempting to put obstacles in the way of the Conference; on the contrary his country was merely defending its rights to the entire territory lying between the Paraguay and Pilcomayo Rivers which he declared was the true frontier, the Paraguayans having systematically encroached upon Bolivian territory. I suggested that the difficulty might be obviated by substituting for the word frontier some such phrase as “the present line of defense”. The Minister replied that he had in mind telegraphing a like suggestion to Washington tomorrow clarifying at the same time several minor points which he found obscure.
With reference to the five countries constituting the Commission, the Minister stated his belief that the Argentine would not agree to serve. In that event he said that Bolivia would request that Peru or Colombia be represented on the Commission which Bolivia desired to function in Washington where the atmosphere was more impartial than in Buenos Aires.