724.3415/742b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Bolivia (Hibbard)
59. Department’s telegram No. 57 today. Upon delivery by you of the communication to the Bolivian Government which was embodied in the Department’s telegram of September 23rd, 6 p.m., you may say to the Minister of Foreign Affairs that this Government earnestly hopes the Bolivian Government will give most serious consideration to the communication which is being made to it on behalf of the five neutral Governments who were represented on the Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation.
The Government of Paraguay unreservedly accepted the original tender of the neutral Governments and there is every reason to believe that Paraguay will accept the Bolivian suggestion reported in your telegram No. 69 of September 18th75 for direct negotiations if these can be conducted with the disinterested and friendly assistance of the neutral Governments. This Government has every confidence in the pacific disposition of the Bolivian Government but the facts of the situation to which attention is invited in the communication which the neutral Governments are making cannot be overlooked. They point to the possibility that unfortunate incidents may arise at any time, threatening consequences more far reaching than can now be foreseen. Under these circumstances, the Bolivian Government I feel sure will want to keep in view the advantageous position in which Bolivia will place herself by spontaneous cooperation with the neutral Governments, which will avoid misapprehension on the part of public opinion in the American Republics as to her purpose to secure a real settlement of the controversy with Paraguay by peaceful means. You should keep in mind the fact that negotiations under the auspices of the Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation for a direct settlement proved no less futile than the previous direct negotiations extending over many years for such a settlement. It was because of the failure of this latest attempt to promote a direct settlement that the neutral Commissioners made their proposal for a settlement by arbitration. After examining the objections raised by both interested Governments to the application of the method of arbitration, which the interested Governments accepted in principle, the neutral Commissioners also indicated in the note of September 12 from the Chairman of the Commission the manner in which these objections could be overcome.
[Paraphrase.] With reference to the first of the two reasons adduced in Legation’s 74, September 25, 4 p.m.,76 for doubting the willingness [Page 907] of the Government of Bolivia to cooperate with the neutral Governments, I should be pleased to have some further explanation of the statement that the Bolivian internal political situation is such as to induce a postponement of a settlement with Paraguay.
With regard to the suggestion that Argentine influence is being exerted adversely, I wish to inform you that the American Embassy in Argentina has been instructed to make clear to the Government of Argentina the direct continuity which exists in the opinion of the neutrals between the proposals made for an arbitral settlement in the note of September 12 from the chairman of the Commission to the delegations of Bolivia and Paraguay, and the suggestions of the Argentine observer at the last Buenos Aires Conference on the same subject.77 [End paraphrase.]