724.3415/2824 7/16
Memorandum by the Chairman of the Commission of Neutrals (White)
The Chilean Chargé d’Affaires, Mr. Cohen, called and read me a telegram from Mr. Cruchaga to the effect that all countries except Argentina now having accepted his plan he thought the Neutral Commission would make a great mistake in not taking some action in support thereof and might cause the breakdown of this peace effort which would be much regretted.
I told Mr. Cohen that Peru had not answered as yet the Neutral communication of December 3141 and I was pretty sure that she had not answered the recent Chilean proposal either. My information was to that effect. Argentina has not accepted the Chilean proposal and Brazil has stated that while she is willing to cooperate with all the countries to bring about peace, having been advised that the Argentine Government has a suggestion to make, she does not feel that she can reply specifically to the Chilean proposal until she has received the Argentine proposal.
I read Mr. Cohen the Bolivian reply42 thanking Mr. Cruchaga for his interest and saying that they think more can be accomplished by reviving the Neutral proposal of December 1543 which would be signed by the four neighboring countries as well. I also told him that the Legation in Asunción reported on the eleventh44 that while the Paraguayan Minister in Santiago had reported regarding the Chilean proposal it had not yet been received directly by the Paraguayan Government, and that President Ayala did not want to discuss it in detail until it should be presented formally to him, but that he had indicated that he did not think much progress could be made unless the four neighboring countries get together with the Neutrals and make a joint proposal.
I told Mr. Cohen that in these circumstances I did not think that anything would be gained by our supporting the Chilean proposal now. I said that he could see that it has not yet been accepted by anybody; that Argentina is working on a new proposal, and that I really did not think we would accomplish anything and it would seem that the best thing would be to await further developments.
Mr. Cohen said that the situation is most unfortunate—that Saavedra Lamas would not support any proposal that was not his own. I said that in view thereof I thought we had better wait and see what he is going to propose and … see if we can not find some workable basis [Page 258] therein. Mr. Cohen said that he agreed and that he would suggest to Cruchaga that the best thing would be for Argentina and Chile to come to an agreement and if they could agree he thought the agreement of the others would be easier.
- Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. v, p. 218.↩
- See telegram No. 6, January 12, 10 p.m., from the Minister in Bolivia, p. 255.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. v, p. 126.↩
- See telegram No. 6, January 11, 10 a.m., from the Minister in Paraguay, p. 250.↩