724.3415/4025: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Gibson)
110. Your 177, August 18, 2 p.m. The Department has urged the Bolivian Government, through the Bolivian Minister here, to accept without reservations the conciliation formula. It is not disposed at this moment to make any commitments to support Bolivia’s claim to a port on the Paraguay River. Freitas-Valle this morning conveyed the request of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, as communicated by you, and was told in reply that it seemed appropriate that Bolivia accept without reservations the seven points of the conciliation formula before discussing with her the attitude which this Government would adopt during the course of the conciliation negotiations; that Paraguay might rightly infer that the mediating nations were adopting an attitude partial to Bolivia if they gave secret commitments to Bolivia to support her claims during those negotiations, whereas if the Bolivian claims appear to be fair and reasonable to Argentina, Brazil, and the United States, they might logically support such claims after conciliation conversations had commenced without having made any prior commitment to do so. Freitas-Valle appeared to be entirely in accord with this policy.
From a conversation today with the Bolivian Minister here, it would seem to be evident that misunderstanding has arisen in Buenos Aires with regard to the statements of the Bolivian Minister in Argentina made at the conference of August 16th. Please cable the views of the Brazilian Government with regard to the suggestion contained in the last paragraph of the Department’s 108, August 18, 1 p.m.