724.3415/1243: Telegram
The Chargé in Paraguay (Horn) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 10:55 p.m.]
65. Department’s 22, June 26, 2 p.m., was delivered this morning. Text of Bolivian and Paraguayan notes was sent by separate cable 63 [64] at 10 a.m.71
I have just returned from an interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who, although appreciative of the interest of our Government and of the other neutrals, was firm in replying that the Paraguayan Government chooses to let matters rest with the sending of its note of reply of June 23rd. His conviction is that any overture towards conciliation should be initiated by Bolivia. So consistent was the Minister for Foreign Affairs in rejecting any suggestion towards adopting a conciliatory spirit that I am confident, as matters now stand, any further counsel of the United States or of the neutral governments would prove futile and might even be resented as indicating a lack of appreciation Paraguay’s national dignity. The Minister [Page 736] for Foreign Affairs informed me that Bolivia’s instruction to its Legation at Asunción regarding contents of its note to Paraguay, was sent without being ciphered, and that this was a cause of added humiliation and resentment.
I believe the greatest danger at this stage of events lies in the ever present possibility of a clash between troops in the Chaco. I expressed the hope that Paraguay would do everything possible to avoid such an eventuality. The Minister for Foreign Affairs assured me that that is his Government’s intention.
- Not printed.↩