724.3415/2226: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile (Culbertson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:45 p.m.]
196. Referring to the last sentence of your telegram No. 77, September 1, noon,59 I desire to report the following developments: Last night the Minister for Foreign Affairs invited to attend a meeting in the Ministry the Ambassadors of Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Peru, and the Ministers of Uruguay, Colombia and Cuba. Chile was represented by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and two other officials of the Ministry.
The Minister presented a new draft of the note referred to in my telegram No. 187, August 25, 6 p.m. The only fundamental change in this draft was in the paragraph relating to the composition of the conference; the draft now proposes a conference including representatives of each of the five neutrals, of each of the four neighboring countries and of Paraguay and Bolivia. The Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that it is the intention of the four neighboring countries to submit the note officially to the Neutral Commission, probably through the Chilean Embassy in Washington. Apparently the hope is that then the Neutral Commission will incorporate the note of the neighboring countries in a communication of its own in which it expresses approval and will thereupon send it to the Governments of Paraguay and Bolivia.
The imminence of the war in the Chaco and the sincere hope that the step they were taking might result in effective cooperation between them and the neutrals were the ideas which pervaded and dominated the conference which lasted until 2 o’clock this morning.
- Not printed.↩