724.3415/660b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Brazil (Schoenfeld)
50. You will request an interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and inform him confidentially that the neutral members of the Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation, Bolivia and Paraguay, expect in the near future to present to the Bolivian and Paraguayan Governments respectively a proposal for a general settlement of the dispute regarding the Chaco. This Government is not informed as to the precise nature of the proposal and will not be responsible therefor, but it is deeply interested in seeing that the proposal receives careful and dispassionate consideration from the two governments concerned. In view of the prominent part which the Brazilian Ambassador to Washington took in connection with the formulation of the protocol [Page 871] under which the Commission is working it is believed that it would be especially appropriate for the Brazilian Government, if it is disposed to do so, to exert its friendly influence both at Asunción and at La Paz on behalf of an objective and moderate consideration of the Commission’s proposal by both governments. Brazil’s influence in this matter would be especially helpful because of that Government’s disinterested position and friendship with both of the countries directly concerned, and it would therefore be most gratifying if the Brazilian Government were disposed to cooperate in the event that it should appear after the proposal has been submitted that it is not being received in such a spirit of moderation in one or both of the two interested countries. You will inquire whether the Brazilian Government would be disposed to take action along the lines suggested, should the occasion for such action arise, making it clear that the action contemplated would be taken only after the actual submission of the proposal, and that you are not of course suggesting that the Brazilian Government commit itself in any way to the merits of the proposal at this time.