724.3415/3125
Memorandum by the Chairman of the Commission of Neutrals (White)
The Minister of Paraguay called and inquired what the chances were for a peaceful settlement of the Chaco. I told him that I thought he or his Government could answer that better than any one else. The Minister said that he did not see any possibility of a solution and he thought the best thing would be for his Government to declare war on Bolivia and carry the matter to a finish by arms.
I told the Minister that obviously I could not agree with any such proposition and that I thought he and his Government would be making a great mistake in taking any such action. The Minister asked what action the Neutral Commission would take. I asked him whether he was coming to the Neutral Commission formally on behalf of his Government with such an inquiry and reminded him that Paraguay had withdrawn from the Commission of Neutrals when [Page 317] the Neutrals made the proposal of December 15.92 We had some discussion regarding the matter, the Minister taking the position that Bolivia was responsible for the continuation of the war by not accepting the Mendoza formula, and I told him that there were many times during the course of the negotiations in the last four years when immediate blame could be imputed to either one or the other; that he was now blaming Bolivia for not accepting the Mendoza formula and he should not forget that Bolivia last December could, with as much justification impute the continuation of the struggle to Paraguay for not having accepted the proposal of the Neutrals of December 15. I said that unfortunately so far there had not been a proposal which had been accepted at the same time by both parties but I hoped that the time was coming when this defect would be remedied.
Finally the Minister asked whether he should say to his Government that the Neutral Commission would take no action until formally requested to do so by Paraguay. I told him that he could do nothing of the sort; that I had not made any such statement. I told him that he could tell his Government that the Neutral Commission was always ready to be of any possible assistance to the combatants in finding a solution satisfactory to both and that we would make use of any opportunity to do so and would welcome any suggestions which the Paraguayan Government might make as to how we could be most effective to this end. The Minister said that he would do so.