824.6363 St 2/420

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of the American Republics (Duggan)

The Bolivian Minister called to discuss informally the formula for solving the Standard Oil controversy. He reiterated his belief that his Government would never accept the phrase in the draft proposal “company’s property rights and interests”. He thought the phrase would be like waving a red flag before a bull.

He said that he had been giving a great deal of thought to a re-draft of the language and had two suggestions to offer:

(1)
He thought that it would be much more satisfactory to his Government if the language read “the company’s properties and interests”. It was the reference to property rights which he thought would be particularly distasteful to his Government. He thought that his Government might agree to the language suggested since it would not open up the question of the company’s rights, the existence of which the Government would be compelled to deny.
(2)
The Minister reminded me that the Company in its demanda43 against the Government had included a second section in which it requested compensation for its properties and set forth in detail the value of its properties. In its reply to this demanda, the Government had listed its pecuniary claims against the Company on account of taxes and for other reasons. The Minister wondered whether it might not be possible to re-draft the proposal so as to give the arbitral board the duty of determining the amounts due by the Government to the Company and by the Company to the Government on the basis of the claims made in the Company’s demanda and in the Government’s [Page 343] reply. He thought that language might be evolved which could omit any reference to the “company’s property rights and interests” by merely referring to the Company’s claim as set forth in the demanda.

I said to the Minister that this was a very interesting suggestion, that I did not remember with sufficient precision those sections of the demanda and the reply to give him even an offhand indication, but that I would look into the matter at once.

I agreed to make a re-draft of the section in question, if the Minister’s suggestion seemed feasible and to get in touch with him as soon as this draft was ready. The Minister said that he would likewise prepare specific language and would be available at any time.

  1. Standard Oil Company’s demanda referred to herein was transmitted to the Department in Spanish with despatch No. 188 of April 5, 1938, from Bolivia, not printed (824.6363 St 2/248).

    Marginal notation opposite this sentence by Mr. Andrew E. Donovan of the Division of the American Republics: “The Minister now says he was mistaken. A.E.D.”