724.3415/4142: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9 p.m.]
161. I today discussed with the Minister for Foreign Affairs the contents of the Department’s 109, September 14, 5 p.m. He thinks it unlikely that Paraguay will at least at this time make any “observations and suggestions” but promises to advise me promptly in such event, declaring that he believes the Paraguayan Government to be elated with their recent victories and therefore little disposed for negotiations. He added further that he thinks in neither country is the desire for peace sufficiently “mature” for profitable discussion with them at the moment. He gave me a memorandum which he said summarized his views on the actual situation of the Chaco problem presenting two possible courses.
Paraguay “1. Renew the negotiations suspended in Buenos Aires which would probably imply the renewal of anxieties since it appears that the will to make peace is not ripe on the part of the belligerents. In any event to take this path it would necessitate organizing the committee of nine countries with the hope of giving it greater efficacy.
2. To link the negotiations which have been carried out to those which now pertain to the League in order to strengthen these activities. This attitude would perhaps be more prudent because it would make it possible to work through the application of a definite instrument, as is the League Pact, and would strengthen the action of the public opinion of a great number of states.”
The memorandum continues: As to the general situation the Argentine Government, keeping in mind its duties toward the friendly [Page 209] countries which have so frankly collaborated in this matter, has kept the League informed concerning the negotiations which have developed. Brazil and the United States, although not members of the League, could not overlook the fact that both belligerents are members thereof and with the Argentine Government have supported the principle that the stipulations of the Pact must be taken into consideration. It was for this reason that at the beginning of the negotiations both countries made the condition that previous advice should be given to the League as for a possible collaboration of the representatives of Brazil and the United States on the conciliation commission which may be appointed in Geneva. That of course is a question which only the interested Governments can determine. It can nevertheless be recalled that a representative of the Washington Government collaborated efficiently on the Council of the League of Nations during the 1932 [1931?] sessions which were convoked to act on the Manchurian conflict.40
The Minister for Foreign Affairs declared his entire understanding of the concluding paragraph of the Department’s telegram under acknowledgment and further handed me the text of a telegram he had sent to the Argentine delegate in Geneva reading as follows:
“In explaining to the Assembly the peace steps taken you should make it clear that the line of conduct followed by the Argentine Government is not to compromise in any way whatever, as is elementary the position, the judgment, and the full liberty of the other countries with which it has had the honor to share the good offices that have been carried out.”
In the presence of the Brazilian Ambassador the Minister for Foreign Affairs referred to the request made by the Bolivian representative in Geneva that the correspondence exchanged by the three mediating powers relating to the Chaco negotiations be laid before the League and said he proposed if we had no objection to telegraph his representative in Geneva as follows:
“Please state with reference to the request made for the documents relating to the steps taken by Argentina together with the United States of America, and Brazil, that I have had the honor to confer with the diplomatic representatives of those countries. The information requested which we are very pleased to supply is limited to the peace plan already known and the replies given by the belligerent countries which by a happy circumstance are represented in that Assembly and are members of the League.”
The Brazilian Ambassador and I agreed that we had no objection to offer to the sending of this telegram.