724.3415/812
The Paraguayan Delegation, Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation, to the Secretary General of the Commission (Schoenfeld)30
Mr. Chairman: I have the honor of transmitting, for the information of the H. Commission under Your Excellency’s worthy chairmanship, the cable in code that the Delegation of Paraguay has received from the Foreign Office of its country in reply to the inquiry submitted to the Paraguayan Government, at the request of [Page 851] the Commission, concerning the measures which will be taken to prevent friction between Paraguayan and Bolivian forces:
“Asunción, May 21. Paraguayan Delegation. Washington, D. C. In reply to the recommendations and queries transmitted in cablegrams of May 14 and 15, you will please inform the Honorable Commission that this Government, faithful to their pledge, have reiterated to the Commanders of our forces in all zones, unqualified instructions to abstain from any act which may cause friction between the forces of Paraguay and Bolivia. These are under capable and prudent Commanders who have instructions to submit any doubt to the Minister of War. Nevertheless, the prevention of new incidents does not rest only upon us. The proximity of the forces of both countries makes it easy for them to arise, and the Chaco desert stimulates their outbreak because it favors concealment of the true facts, thus permitting Bolivia, who provokes them, to exhibit herself as a victim, while knowing beforehand that there will always be doubts in the minds of the Plenipotentiary Commissioners as to who was the aggressor.”
I avail myself [etc.]
- Printed from mimeographed minutes of Commission of Inquiry and Conciliation, Bolivia and Paraguay, Meeting of June 17, 1929, p. 2.↩