810.20 Defense/143a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Bolivia (Jenkins)
32. As a result of certain conversations held in Washington between the Under Secretary of State and the Bolivian Minister, it has been agreed by the two Governments to hold staff conversations between officers of the United States Army and Navy and officers of the Bolivian Army in connection with plans for hemisphere defense and supplementing similar conversations which will be held between representatives of this Government and of all of the other American republics.
Major M. D. Taylor, United States Army, has been designated to represent the War Department in these proposed conversations. It is expected that following the termination of similar conversations in Santiago, Chile, Major Taylor will arrive in La Paz in time for the conversations to begin in that city on August 29. You may care to ascertain from him through the Embassy at Santiago the precise date of his arrival. Following the termination of his conversations at La Paz, Major Taylor will proceed to Lima to undertake similar conversations in company with a representative of the Navy Department with the Peruvian authorities.
You may inform Major Taylor on arrival that he is authorized to hear such considerations as the Bolivian military authorities desire to advance with regard to the possibility of pressure on Bolivia from other American republics, but that he should, of course, refrain from any comment in connection with this specific topic of the conversations proposed by the Bolivian Foreign Minister for inclusion in the agenda and not included in the agenda prepared by this Government.
[Page 40]A separate telegram49 is being sent you outlining the agenda for the proposed conversations, a copy of which was handed to the Bolivian Minister in Washington. While the Department assumes that the text of the agenda was telegraphed to the Bolivian Government by the Minister here, you are authorized to communicate a copy in confirmation to the appropriate authorities of the Bolivian Government in confidence immediately in advance of Major Taylor’s arrival.