724.3415/4090: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell)
107. Your 154, September 9, 10 a.m. Please cable Department immediately what prior statements Dr. Saavedra Lamas may have made to you providing for a simultaneous signing of the agreement for arbitration and conciliation under the terms of the conciliation formula. If the interpretation Dr. Saavedra gives to the conciliation formula is that the signing of the conciliation formula will be simultaneous with the conclusion by Bolivia and Paraguay of an agreement to arbitrate, the solution would appear to be satisfactory in every way. The Department has not, however, received any previous intimation that this was the intent and neither Article VII of the original conciliation formula nor Article VII in the Bolivian counter proposal make this point clear.
If Dr. Saavedra Lamas interprets his intention along the lines above indicated, you may state that the procedure so outlined would appear entirely satisfactory to this Government and that the suggestion for modification of Article VII previously communicated to you by the Department should consequently be modified accordingly.
It was the Department’s understanding, as it was that of the Brazilian Government, that the Bolivian modifications were to be communicated confidentially to the mediating powers in order that Brazil and the United States might be afforded the opportunity of suggesting to Bolivia such changes in her proposal as might seem desirable and calculated to afford a better opportunity of obtaining Paraguayan acquiescence. The Brazilian Government has expressed to us its surprise [Page 197] that Dr. Saavedra Lamas has forwarded the Bolivian conditions to Paraguay without consulting either Brazil or the United States. It would be advisable for you at some appropriate opportunity to make it clear to Dr. Saavedra Lamas that both this Government and Brazil might be enabled more effectively to assist in the negotiations if, when the Paraguayan reply to the Bolivian suggestions is received, Brazil and the United States be afforded the opportunity of being advised of such reply before it is communicated to Bolivia. In that way both Brazil and the United States would be enabled to consult with the Argentine Government as to the representations which should be made to Bolivia.