724.3415/4033: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:15 p.m.]
137. By appointment I met the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Brazilian Ambassador at the latter’s [residence?] this afternoon. The Minister of Foreign Affairs read a telegram from Washington which seemed to follow closely paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of the Department’s [Page 181] 91, August 20, 7 p.m. I told the Minister that the information contained therein appeared to coincide with that given me. The Brazilian Ambassador seemed to have been similarly advised. The Minister for Foreign Affairs then read a paper which he had drafted interpreting the acceptance of paragraph 7 of his conciliation formula as constituting also a complete acceptance of the statutes of the Hague Tribunal, article 36 of which leaves to that body the determining of the scope of arbitrations, et cetera, submitting [submitted?] to it.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs then stated that he felt it would be now appropriate for the United States and Brazil to endeavor to obtain at La Paz an agreement without reservation as to the conciliation formula, and a clear and definite statement of Bolivia’s position with respect to conciliation and with respect to arbitration, the Argentine Government to undertake the same service at Asunción, adding that the Brazilian Ambassador, he and I should rather confine ourselves at the moment to seeing that there was no breakdown in the negotiations here. I said I would inform my Government of the foregoing and the Brazilian Ambassador said he would do likewise.
The above suggestion from the Minister for Foreign Affairs seems to take care of the concluding paragraph of the Department’s telegram referred to above, save that it limits the suggestion to action at the two belligerent capitals.
Following this the Paraguayan Minister arrived and the Minister for Foreign Affairs read to him the paper relating to his interpretation of paragraph 7 of his conciliation formula above referred to, with which the Paraguayan representative said he was in accord, adding that his Government had accepted the formula with a full consciousness of its implications and in a spirit of entire good faith.