Office of the Historian

724.3415/812

The Bolivian Delegation, Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation, to the Secretary General of the Commission (Schoenfeld)29

Washington, May 21, 1929.

Mr. Secretary General: We take pleasure in referring to your courteous note of the 13th instant which contains the text of the [Page 850] Resolution adopted by the H. Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation at its meeting of even date with regard to new happenings in Vanguardia which this Delegation, complying with explicit instructions of the Bolivian Government, denounced as the result of new incursions by Paraguayan troops in the region of the aforesaid outpost.

In connection with the foregoing Resolution you are also kind enough to inform us that the Commissioners for Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Cuba and the United States request that we inquire of our Government what measures have already been taken and what further measures will be taken to prevent friction of any kind between forces of Bolivia and Paraguay in any region.

In reply we are glad to reiterate the prior statement to the effect that the Government of Bolivia has established no new outpost in Vanguardia and that the happenings of the 4th and 5th instant have not been provoked by the Bolivian garrisons in that zone.

With regard to the request of the Commissioners for Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Cuba and the United States, we also take pleasure in stating that the Bolivian Government deems that the Paraguayan forces should refrain from advancing beyond their present positions and from approaching those of Bolivia, under any pretext whatever, if they do not wish to provoke an encounter with the Bolivian forces charged with exacting respect for the Nation’s sovereignty in the Chaco and Oriente regions. Our Government, on its part, shall continue to fulfill, loyally, all commitments concerning the matter made in the Protocol of January 3, of the present year.

In the hope that the foregoing statements may meet the wishes of the Commissioners requesting them, we take pleasure in conveying to you, Mr. Secretary General, the assurances of our highest and most distinguished consideration.

  • David Alvéstegui
  • Enrique Finot
  1. Printed from mimeographed minutes of Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation, Bolivia and Paraguay, Meeting of June 17, 1929, p. 2.↩