824.6363 St 2/340
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The Bolivian Minister called to pay his respects. I brought up the oil seizure matter and the Minister stated that he and his Foreign Minister had been giving it all the attention they could with a view to an adjustment and that he would confer in detail with Mr. Welles when the latter returned to the Department from his vacation.
He remarked that the South American countries were very greatly concerned about the European war situation. He recalled my representations to the Latin American delegations at Lima27 and the way [Page 328] they had proven to be true, and said that this had been especially impressed on the Argentines. I replied that in this dangerous, chaotic world situation there was never such a ripe plum dangled before a hungry person than Latin America appears to be to these lawless nations, hungry as wolves for vast territory with rich undeveloped natural resources such as South America possesses; that it is all-important for the American nations to pursue a lawful, friendly and reasonable course with each other; and that the dollars and cents involved in the oil seizure were small compared to the great injury that would result to Bolivia, as well as to my own and other countries, if that sort of an act should go uncorrected and the friendship between the two countries should be seriously impaired. He agreed heartily and said he was going to take the matter up in all earnestness looking towards some method of adjustment.
- Department of State, Press Releases, December 10, 1938, pp. 423–428; ibid., December 24, 1938, pp. 475–478.↩