724.3415/3317 ½
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs (Wilson)
I telephoned Mr. Bliss this afternoon and gave him in detail what Mr. White had said this morning about Saavedra Lamas’ proposal. I said that Mr. White could not emphasize too strongly the importance he attached to Saavedra Lamas’ abandoning his independent steps with Bolivia and Paraguay and cooperating with the neutrals through backing up their inquiry of Bolivia of September 2. Mr. Bliss asked if he was authorized to inform Saavedra of the neutrals’ message to the Bolivian Foreign Minister, and I said that I could see no objection to this since it had always been the policy of the neutrals to keep the neighboring countries fully informed. Mr. Bliss said that the difficulty with the neutrals’ inquiry of Bolivia would be, he believed, that it did not seem to provide any guarantees that there would be no troop movements during the truce and Paraguay was insisting upon guarantees. I said that once Bolivia agreed that there [Page 196] would be no troop movements or concentration of troops during the truce, the neutrals could then go back at Paraguay on this line with the hope of working out a solution. The important thing was that Argentina, if she wanted to cooperate, should get back of the neutrals and not muddy the waters by putting in independent proposals.
Mr. Bliss said that he understood and would try to put this over with Saavedra, although he believed it might be difficult. He said that Saavedra had assured him many times recently that he was not looking for any personal glory out of this, but only wanted to support the neutrals. I said that his last proposal was not in line with this statement since it was an independent act on his part taken before consulting the neutrals.