725.34/49: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Paraguay (Nicholson)
33. Your 38, August 24, noon. At this stage in the Chaco negotiations, it has been considered advisable by Argentina, Brazil, and the United States to entrust temporarily to the former the making of such [Page 316] representations to Paraguay as are considered desirable by the three nations, leaving to Brazil and to the United States the making of such representations to Bolivia as are considered necessary. This procedure has been temporarily adopted owing to various misunderstandings and complications which have ensued as the result of conversations held simultaneously in Buenos Aires with the diplomatic representatives of both Bolivia and Paraguay. For this reason, likewise, it has been deemed desirable to leave to Dr. Saavedra Lamas the task of exerting such pressure upon Paraguay as he deems desirable in order to obtain a solution of the Chilean-Paraguayan incident. The Department has instructed the American Ambassador in Buenos Aires to express to Dr. Saavedra Lamas the hope that Paraguay would be favorably disposed towards the last solution suggested by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile as reported to you by your Brazilian colleague, but has no intention of instructing you to make representations in that sense directly to the Paraguayan Government.
The Department is further advised today by the American Ambassador in Rio de Janeiro that the Brazilian Foreign Office has been informed by the Brazilian Minister in Asunción that the latter is in accord with your view that it is inadvisable to press in Asunción for a solution of the Chilean-Paraguayan incident.
As you are presumably informed by the Paraguayan Government, the latter has officially and in writing accepted without reservations the Argentine conciliation formula.7 The Brazilian and American Governments are endeavoring to persuade Bolivia to take similar action. The Bolivian Government is likewise being urged to state clearly its considered views with regard to the nature of the submission to arbitration should conciliation proceedings prove impracticable.