724.3415/1821½

The Paraguayan Delegate (Soler) to the Chairman of the Commission of Neutrals (White)

[Translation]

Mr. President: In accordance with our telephone conversation of yesterday, I have the pleasure to confirm to you in a note, the remarks which are suggested to me by the paragraph of the last cable from the Neutrals to the Government of Bolivia,34 in which it is affirmed that the draft pact of non-aggression of May 6, last, was drawn up by the delegates of Bolivia and Paraguay.

The delegation of Paraguay could not accept the authorship of the draft, without manifest injustice. Neither Dr. Vasconsellos nor the undersigned did any more than collaborate, in our character as negotiators, in the changes made in the draft before its official submission to both delegations. At the time, the draft seemed to us absolutely [Page 41] unacceptable, and if we received it, it was for the sole purpose of sending the text thereof to our Government, which needed to know it in order to send us instructions.

At the time of receiving it, we gave it a rapid reading, especially to correct the form of it, subject to the privilege of taking advantage of the opportunity to improve the draft in accordance with our points of view, in so far as we were permitted to do so by the opposition of the delegates of Bolivia, but we never gave the draft our acceptance. On the contrary, more than once, both in our informal conversations with Your Excellency and in those held under your presidency with the delegation of Bolivia, we clearly made known our lack of agreement on certain points. With respect to the status quo, we declare, for example, today as yesterday, that we will never sign any agreement which does not contain a reservation expressing the rights of our country to the status quo of 1907.

The White draft, as it is called, doing justice to its illustrious author, contains the bases which are to form the subject of discussion in the following conferences, provided that both delegations receive the necessary authorization and instructions to study it. It is in that sense that we received it and transmitted it to our Government.

My colleague, Dr. Vasconsellos, is absent,35 but I make these explanations in his name and my own, because I am sure of interpreting the scope of his ideas and his words, which have always been as categorical as those herein stated.

I avail myself [etc.]

Juan José Soler
  1. Dated July 25.
  2. For personal reasons, Vasconsellos had returned to Asunción.