724.3415/3941: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:29 p.m.]
101. Referring to Department’s No. 66, July 17, 4[6] p.m., I last night communicated substance of first paragraph of Department’s telegram No. 66, July 17, 4 [6] p.m., to the Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs who expressed his satisfaction thereat. At the same time I also brought out the essential points contained in the second paragraph with which the Minister said he was in substantial accord adding that in this whole matter he was without prepossession, seeking only the goal of peace. I then made known to the Minister our Government’s feelings and desires as set forth in the concluding paragraph of the Department’s telegram.
Doctor Saavedra Lamas told me that he had received a reply from the President of Bolivia that was indefinite in its terms and that a more considered answer was promised after the departure of the President of Ecuador who is now visiting Bolivia. This provisional [Page 151] response, said the Minister, was not entirely satisfactory since President Salamanca … sought in it to link acceptance of the formula to certain engagements by Paraguay (such as a port on the Upper Paraguay) which the Minister said he had hastened to point out was against the spirit of his plan which sought to bring the parties together for reconciliation, then to proceed to the adjustment of differences.
The Minister further said that he was beginning to think that perhaps the time was now ripe to give publicity to the matter in order to exert the power of all American public opinion on [Bolivia];4 he was entirely willing that in the final solution all American Republics should be represented but that Argentina, Brazil and the United States must be careful to guard their dignity as first class powers in all negotiations; he was perfectly willing to accept any modification of his formula that did not strike at its fundamentals; he feels that now is the accepted time for achieving peace and that with the close friendship prevailing between his country and Brazil and with the [latter]5 and the United States supporting the plan the moment was propitious for accomplishing something definite.