724.3415/2408
The Paraguayan Delegate (Soler) to the Chairman of the Commission of Neutrals (White)
Mr. Chairman: I have the honor to transmit to the Commission under your worthy Presidency the following cabled note from my Government in reply to the last despatch69 from the honorable Commission of Neutrals:
“Mr. President of the Commission of Neutrals: The Paraguayan Government is prepared to begin steps of conciliation and broad arbitration, but it judges indispensable the termination of hostilities and not a mere truce. To this end it insists on the necessity for establishing as a prerequisite a régime of reciprocal security, consisting in the total demilitarization of the Chaco and the reduction of the armies. Once an agreement has been reached on these points the creation of a commission of neutral military men will be contemplated in order to see to the faithful execution of the said agreement. Paraguay will suspend hostilities, once both conditions have been accepted by Bolivia, under the guarantee of the Neutrals. It is superfluous to dwell upon the fact that the Paraguayan proposals constitute an organic whole, which it is impossible to dismember, because they answer to the necessity of fixing conditions of security before beginning the steps toward arbitration of suspending hostilities.
Justo Pastor
Benítez,
Minister of Foreign Relations.”
I avail myself [etc.]
- Dated September 26.↩