724.34119/1442: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:50 p.m.]
182. From Braden. It was agreed on the motion of the Brazilian delegate at Conference session this morning to allow Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs 48 hours in which to try personally to bring [Page 160] about full agreement between the ex-belligerent delegations. I do not like this procedure but can do nothing about it.
Bolivian Minister for Foreign Affairs in an attempt once again to brand Paraguay as intransigent and officially ignoring the solution by arbitration and plebiscite, late Saturday delivered an impertinent note to the Conference inaccurately stating that the Conference on June 25th had promised to end negotiations if Paraguay did not accept within 72 hours the Conference line minus the littoral. A reply will be made pointing out the error of that statement. My colleague and I are satisfied recent difficulties have been provoked by personal ambition of Finot who, while at outs with Bolivian Minister for Foreign Affairs, nevertheless cows him.
Negotiations stand today as numbered below:
- (1)
- Both parties have agreed secretly with mediators individually that the line of award in the arbitration under consideration shall be Esmeralda, 27 of November, Captain Ustares, Palmer de las Islas Chovoreca, mouth of Otuquis. Forts Galpon and Patria would probably be destroyed or quietly moved westward a short distance to allow Bolivian access to the triangle.
- (2)
- The Paraguayan position is that logically the whole zone between their counter-proposal line and the Conference line minus the littoral must be submitted to arbitration.
- (3)
- The Bolivian position is that the western line of the award must be written into the arbitral compromise as being Esmeralda, 27 of November, Captain Ustares because, as they declared to me on Friday, they did not trust the arbitrators to award it. Now they allege, to balance Paraguayan stand regarding Paraguay River, zone for arbitration should not touch Parapiti River.
Therefore on discovering a procedure satisfactory to both parties depends the peace.
As not [now?] contemplated, as soon as we have agreement in principle a treaty will be signed containing as one of its clauses the provision that the frontier be drawn in accordance with the award to be made ex aequo et bono by the Presidents of the six mediatory republics who will be authorized to delegate their powers. First draft of the treaty is ready and will be transmitted by next air mail pouch.
Paraguayans reported on Saturday that Bolivia was concentrating troops in Chaco evidently in preparation for attack in case of Conference failure. Today military observers confirm this report by telegraph and add that Bolivian troops have moved up to the intermediary line from Villa Montes and that the position of the observers is becoming very difficult. [Braden.]