724.3415/3008
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)
The Brazilian Ambassador called and said that his Government learned that the United States was willing to cooperate with the ABC Peru countries in the Chaco matter. I explained to him my conversation with Mr. Espil and Mr. Cohen the other day and said that we were cooperating in preliminary explorations to see whether the reservations made by Bolivia and Paraguay could be modified, as it seemed futile for the nine Powers to make the same proposal over again unless the positions of Bolivia and Paraguay could be changed. [Page 299] I told the Ambassador that the United States was not breaking away from the Neutral Commission in any way whatsoever and that if we succeeded in changing the views of the two countries then the Neutrals and the neighbors would act again.