724.3415/3306
The Ambassador in Brazil (Gibson) to
the Secretary of State
No. 15
Rio de
Janeiro, August 23, 1933.
[Received
September 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Embassy’s
despatch No. 4182 of July 29, 1933, on the subject noted above, and to
enclose herewith a copy of a memorandum of a conversation I had on
August 21 with the Minister for Foreign Affairs with respect to the
Chaco negotiations.
Respectfully yours,
For the Ambassador
Walter C.
Thurston
[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the Ambassador in Brazil (Gibson)
In the course of my conversation with the Minister for Foreign
Affairs this afternoon, I asked him as to the progress made in
connection with the Chaco negotiations. He said that the
negotiations
[Page 354]
were in
suspense pending the receipt of replies from the other three
mediating Powers to his latest proposal. He had said that if they
were in agreement he would propose to both Paraguay and Bolivia a
preliminary settlement by the acceptance of a line delimiting the
territory unconditionally recognized as belonging to Paraguay, and
that the remaining territory should be evacuated by both sides who
should at the same time accept an armistice of forty-five days to be
prolonged as conditions required. He had suggested this relatively
brief armistice period because he felt that it was a common state in
such cases to fix a period so long that all the interested parties
lost interest in immediate action. He said that he had not heard
from Argentina, Chile or Peru, and was unable to conjecture what
their attitude would be on this proposal, but that after all the
varied schemes which had been brought forward and rejected, he felt
that this was about the last hope of favorable action.
He said that he would keep me informed of developments.
Hugh Gibson
Rio de Janeiro,
August 21,
1933.
