724.34119/1431: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 30—1:31 a.m.]
172. For the Secretary and Under Secretary from Braden. Junior Paraguayan delegate under instructions from Zubizarreta has agreed with me on the plan described in following paragraphs. I interviewed President of the Argentine Republic Ortiz and Bolivian Minister for Foreign Affairs Diez Medina and both approve entirely. Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs approves but believes, see (f) below, should be of service. Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs received [Page 154] this evening telegram from Argentine Minister at La Paz reporting that the Bolivian Government has instructed Bolivian Minister for Foreign Affairs to forego littoral “for the sake of peace” but to insist on the rest of the Conference May 27 line. As soon as I learn of these instructions from the Bolivian Minister for Foreign Affairs himself the plan of procedure hereinafter described can be put into effect.
The plan is for President Roosevelt to instruct me to make the following proposal (of which I transmit on [only?] the bare outline for dressing up by the Department) to a plenary session of the Conference including ex-belligerent delegations:
- (a)
- A brief preamble emphasizing the importance and need of peace.
- (b)
- That the zone lying between the Conference proposal of May 27th (excluding the littoral which was made an irreductible condition by Paraguay) and the line offered by Paraguay in the counter-proposal of June 24 (first paragraph my telegram No. 164, June 24, 9 p.m.) is so narrow that it is impossible to contemplate a breaking down of peace negotiations between two sister republics on account of this difference.
- (c)
- That since the Conference has not yet declared initiated the period for the concertation of the compromis the question of submitting this zone to a juridicial arbitration does not arise. Moreover in a juridicial arbitration neither Bolivia nor Paraguay can consent to the determination of particular zones.
- (d)
- That within the period of direct negotiations now in process it is possible to carry out rapidly an arbitration ex aequo et bono, the arbitrator taking into account not the juridicial titles and pretentions of the two litigants (disputants) but only the antecedents furnished by the Conference and the parties respecting the direct negotiations.
- (e)
- That such an arbitration would fix the frontier within the zone outlined by the lines mentioned in paragraph (b) above.
- (f)
- Therefore he instructs me to propose to the Conference that any one or more of the Presidents of the mediatory countries, acting on behalf of the other mediatory Presidents and their Governments, serve as arbitrator or arbitrators and that Paraguay and Bolivia sign immediately an arbitral compromis to this effect committing themselves to the acceptance of the award; this compromis to be ratified by the Constitutional Convention in Bolivia and in Paraguay by a plebiscite possibly including women to be held within 20 days, the arbitral award to be given 10 days thereafter.
As soon as my instructions are sent the press should be informed of the fact; the instructions themselves should be given out at the hour of the Conference meeting which I can request immediately and of which I shall inform the Department.
I favor having my instructions specify the President of the Argentine Republic but at his request they should be as in (f) above. Therefore immediately after presenting the instructions I shall move that as host to this Conference the President of the Argentine Republic be requested by the Conference to assume the arbitration.
[Page 155]During the 30 days after signing the compromis the Conference and parties would be ostensibly informing the arbitrator. It will be understood hitherto between the Conference and the Bolivian and Paraguayan delegations that the award will be the line described in the fourth paragraph my telegram No. 164, June 24, 9 p.m., on which, as I reported yesterday, there is already virtual agreement. [Braden.]