Office of the Historian

724.3415/2915: Telegram

The Minister in Bolivia (Feely) to the Secretary of State

La Paz, March 1, 1933—6 p.m.
[Received 6:30 p.m.]

18. Bolivia accepts in principle the idea of ending the conflict and suggests the following conditions of settlement:

1.
All previous diplomatic acts and projects are null and shall not influence the award.
2.
The question shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the principles of the August 3d declaration60 and the award shall apply the principle of the uti possedetis juris of 1810.
3.
The territory shall be adjudicated to the party having the best titles, acts of force and of occupation being without value. The award cannot anticipate the establishment of compensations nor arrangements by equity.
4.
The Hayes Award Zone61 to be included in the arbitral territory.
5.
Territory to be arbitrated shall be bounded by the two rivers, parallel 21, and meridian 59°55'.

When these points are agreed upon the details of the armistice, of the arbitral tribunal, the exchange of prisoners, et cetera, shall be considered.

The Bolivian attitude toward these latter points is as follows: rejects Ballivián-Roboré line and suggests instead the positions held when hostilities cease.

The questions to be submitted to arbitration shall be determined by the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the American nations who shall be also legal arbitrators as to questions impossible of settlement by direct understanding.

A special organism to be set up by the Governments of Bolivia and Paraguay sitting in Rio de Janeiro or Lima would keep the interested [Page 278] governments in touch with the Presidents of the Supreme Courts through the respective Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the computation of the opinions and the proclamation of the results, would be confided to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Three [The?] prisoners to be delivered within 20 days after the armistice at neutral points.

If the exploratory efforts indicate the possibility of an understanding, Bolivia will accept the good offices of the four countries in joint action with the neutrals.

Feely
  1. Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. v, p. 159.↩
  2. Hayes Award, November 12, 1878; see Foreign Relations, 1878, p. 711.↩