724.3415/2602: Telegram
The Minister in Paraguay (Wheeler) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 8, 12:05 a.m.]
168. Your telegram 55, December 5, 5 p.m. The President expresses surprise that there should be in the minds of the Neutrals such a misunderstanding as to the terms of Soler’s note of September 16 to the Commission84 as seems to be indicated by your telegram. The note cabled to him from here used the expression “de modo que Bolivianos se retiren el [al?] Oeste del meridiano sesenta dos [y] medio Greenwich y hagi sobre su litoral fluvial”. It does not mean this to apply to only a single point on that meridian. The Ballivián-Vitriones line, while its southwestern end touches the Pilcomayo not far from the meridian named, is in no sense the meridian itself. With Bolivia on the meridian and Paraguay on the river, Paraguay considers that the Chaco will be virtually demilitarized which this Government insists must be a condition for Paraguay’s ceasing hostilities.
[Page 121]I spent 2 hours last night with Ayala and had a further conversation with him this morning and I regret to say that he will not retreat from this position. In reference to the proposal of the appointment of geographers he contends that the Chaco Boreal is a geographical section clearly delimitated on modern maps such for example as that issued in 1929 by the American Geographical Society and there is no need of defining its limits. The question at issue is the line in the Chaco which should be the boundary between Paraguay and Bolivia. He will accept a discussion, either directly or under the supervision of the Neutrals, of bases for an arbitration but he demands first security against further Bolivian attack. Clearly he has no belief, since Bolivia desires a limited arbitration, that it will be possible to come to an agreement as to these bases so long as Bolivia keeps her army in the Chaco. Paraguay will not accept a neutral zone. Her contention is that if Bolivia really desires a suspension of hostilities and a peaceable settlement she has no more need to keep troops in the Chaco than has Paraguay and that if both sides retire from the Chaco there will be no necessity for a neutral zone.
Unless in the event of a decided military reverse it is difficult to believe that Ayala will modify his stand. The fighting at Saavedra is temporarily at a standstill on account of the rains but it is the general opinion among foreign military observers here that it will be taken before very long. The Military Attaché of this Legation arrived this morning and will leave for the front Saturday.