724.3415/4290: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Gibson)
162. Your 302, October 27, noon. The American Consul at Geneva cabled under date of October 26th,55 that Avenol on that date, assuming that conciliation negotiations were continuing on this Continent, expressed the hope that the bases for such an attempted settlement and those which will be expressed in the final report of the Assembly would not present divergencies sufficient to permit the two disputants to seek recourse to separate jurisdictions. He admitted that in the absence of a Paraguayan representative, conciliation in Geneva was in fact a failure, adding that the justification of a continuity of de jure conciliatory attempts in Geneva was that the League should not be regarded as not having made every effort. Avenol further stated that were conciliation attained elsewhere before November 20th, it might obviate the convening of the extraordinary session of the Assembly.
The Argentine Government, through its Ambassador here, has communicated a message giving its views on the present situation which are approximately the same as those communicated to the Brazilian Foreign Office. While the unwillingness of the Argentine Government to foster conversations in Rio is based officially upon that Government’s alleged desire to avoid any conflict of jurisdiction with the League at this time, it is clear from between the lines of the message received by the Argentine Ambassador that the more material objection is the transfer of the seat of these conversations from Buenos Aires to Rio. Saavedra Lamas suggested to the Department that any further conciliatory action be postponed until the League had “spent itself.”
Both the Bolivian Minister here and the Bolivian Minister in Rio are apparently urgently desirous that conversations proceed in Rio as originally planned. The Bolivian Foreign Minister apparently, however, fears jeopardizing the position of Bolivia in Geneva and the approaching elections in Bolivia are likewise clearly an obstacle to the taking of any positive action by Bolivia at this moment. If, for any reason, however, the attitude of the Bolivian Government should change and the Bolivian Minister in Rio were formally instructed by [Page 232] his Government to proceed with the conversations, this Government would be glad to further them in every appropriate manner, provided, of course, that the Brazilian Government maintains its present announced willingness that the seat of the conversations be transferred to Buenos Aires should any concrete formula develop therefrom.
- Telegram No. 303, not printed.↩