724.3415/1016a: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Bolivia (Hibbard)

16. Department feels that progress is being made and that the penultimate paragraph of the note of February 25,73 coupled with the statement of the President reported in your 15, February 27, 3 p.m. and a similar statement made to the Department by the Bolivian Minister on the third instant means that Bolivia will, as soon as the conciliation agreement of September 12 is carried out, initiate direct negotiations in Washington, supplemented by similar negotiations in La Paz and/or Asunción. Please call on the President and express the gratification of this Government at the decision of the Bolivian Government in the premises. At the same time you may discreetly point out that (1) the settlement of the fundamental question at issue is not linked up with the conciliation agreement, and (2) the conciliation agreement offers no basis for delaying the establishment of diplomatic relations pending the settlement of the questions of Boquerón and Vanguardia.

In carrying out the above you will be very careful to avoid any appearance of pressure on Bolivia or of attempting to hasten it unduly in instituting direct negotiations in Washington.

For your information the Department interprets the recent statement of Paraguay as giving complete freedom of action to Uruguay and tacitly accepting the Uruguayan formula for carrying out the agreement of September 12, as regards Boqueron and Vanguardia. The Department is advising the Uruguayan Government of its views [Page 343] in the premises and is suggesting that it proceed by sending its officers to the Forts in question. The Department hopes that this last obstacle to prompt initiation of direct negotiations will, therefore, soon be removed.

Cotton
  1. See telegram No. 16, February 27, 5 p.m., from the Chargé in Bolivia, supra.