Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72/3297

The Minister in Bolivia ( O’Rear) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram—Extract]
La Paz, February 8, 1917, 3 p.m.
[Received February 10, 9 p.m.]

At the request of Bolivian Minister for Foreign Affairs I have the honor to transmit the text of the note sent by Bolivian Government to the German Minister and which has been published in all the newspapers:

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Looking at that situation through the light that is projected by the unquestionable rights of commerce and neutral traffic and the imprescriptible rights of civilization and of humanity, the prohibition of the neutral merchant traffic on an unlimited zone or the warlike aggression against neutral merchant vessels can not be considered without a protest. And it is such a protest that the Government of Bolivia wishes to consign in this reply, adding that it has resolved to consolidate its attitude in the present diplomatic emergency with that of the Government of the United States.

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O’Rear

[For the proposals of the de facto Mexican Government for terminating the European war, transmitted to the Secretary of State on February 12, and the replies of the Secretary of State, February 17 and March 16, see ante, pages 44, 54, 67.]