724.34119/264: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell)
156. For Gibson. Your 267, October 30, 9 p.m. I feel it is highly undesirable to consider the possibility of adjourning the peace conference [Page 173] at this juncture for any considerable time. You state that your information is that both the Bolivian and Paraguayan replies will for all practical purposes constitute rejection. The Minister of Bolivia has very confidentially informed me that the original draft of the Bolivian reply was favorable and that the reply was modified after the tenor of the Paraguayan reply became known to the Bolivian Government although the Bolivian Government in reality still shared the Minister’s own view that the proposal in general should be regarded as acceptable by Bolivia. Elío may of his own initiative explain this to you personally. It has also been intimated to me by the Paraguayan Minister that although in the form of a rejection, the Paraguayan reply is to be construed as leaving the door open for further negotiations for a direct agreement based upon the proposal of the conference. Consequently it would seem to be bad tactics on the part of the conference to consider an adjournment of more than a very few weeks so long as there is even the remotest possibility of obtaining a direct agreement between the belligerent governments.
Adjournment for any protracted period would seem all the more undesirable if the neutral delegates at the conference are correct in believing that the belligerents will not agree upon the formulation of the terms of arbitration. The position taken by this Government has been as you know that all of the neutral governments represented at the conference assumed the moral obligation to continue working for peace until a definitive peace was obtained. The conference itself is the patent demonstration that the neutral governments are openly and jointly cooperating in this sense. Its practical utility is obvious in avoiding the constant crossing of wires which occurred so long as various neutral governments were undertaking independent peace moves.
In any event, I hope you will not permit the other delegates to obtain the impression that this Government could agree to a lengthy adjournment of the type indicated in paragraph 4 of your cable under reference until the Department has been afforded the opportunity of studying the texts of the replies made by the Bolivian and Paraguayan delegations.
If, as I assume from the information given me by the Bolivian and Paraguayan Ministers, the replies have the nominal form of a rejection of the proposal but still leave the way open for continued negotiation on the basis of the proposal, a relatively short adjournment might be considered. During this period the confidential conversations referred to in paragraph 5 of your telegram could be undertaken.