724.3415/3945: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:45 p.m.]
103. Referring to Department’s No. 68, July 20, 7 p.m. I this afternoon saw the Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs and made known to him the Department’s views and observations as contained therein. He seemed deeply gratified by the Department’s sympathetic attitude and emphasized his general accord with the Department’s views adding that his suggestion of publicity was meant only as a last resort in the event of a flat refusal by either of the countries concerned to accept his formula. He considers secrecy as vital at the present stage of the negotiations.
He showed me a telegram just received from his Minister in La Paz informing him that the American Minister there had returned [received?] instructions from his Government “that he insist on the acceptance of the formula by Bolivia”, the Argentine Minister at La Paz adding that the Bolivian Government saw no objection to Buenos Aires as the place of meeting for the conciliation group.
The Foreign Minister also showed me a long message received Friday or Saturday from his Ambassador in Rio the latter stating that the Brazilian Government was perturbed by press despatches concerning peace negotiations and submitting from the Brazilian Foreign Office a suggested communiqué to the press tacitly admitting that negotiations were going on. The Argentine Ambassador in Rio was concerned over the whole matter fearing a repercussion in Chilean Government circles. The Foreign Minister’s reply to his Ambassador was to the effect that he would deprecate publication of such a statement saying it would … kill the negotiations.…
Referring to the concluding sentence of the Department’s telegram No. 68 the Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the Chilean Ambassador [Page 156] here had quite recently called on him to ask for information; that he had informed the Ambassador that “exploratory conversations” had been negotiated by him with the two Governments at war; that a natural modesty had restrained him from discussing the matter with Chile when there was a chance of a second rebuff by one or the other of the combatants; that of course it had always been his idea promptly to inform the Chilean Government as soon as something like an understanding had been reached; and that the Ambassador was empowered to inform his Government to the foregoing effect. The Minister for Foreign Affairs said he had told the Ambassador nothing of the formula.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs said he had been also approached by the Peruvian Ambassador here and had replied in the above sense to him with permission to inform his Government.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the position of Argentina before the League of Nations was a delicate one as it was a member of the Council and that he had instructed his Minister at Bern to inform the League of these exploratory conversations.
In conclusion the Minister for Foreign Affairs said that in the case of Bolivia he feared two things, first, a premature and ill-considered reply which might be explicitly in the negative, and second, the linking of acceptance of the formula to certain engagements by Paraguay (the latter as suggested in my number 101 of July 19, 1 p.m.) and by an insistence on arbitration.