724.3415/4283: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
105. Your 301, October 24, noon, second paragraph. You may inform Avenol orally that this Government has made no démarche at La Paz or elsewhere in the sense reported. The facts are that the Bolivian Minister recently inquired what the United States proposed to do with regard to resuming mediation negotiations; he was informed that the negotiations in which we had been engaged were temporarily suspended; that our position was exactly what it had always been, namely, that we stood ready to be helpful whenever in our judgment an appropriate opportunity was presented if the two belligerents desired such help, but that we certainly could take no steps on our own initiative until both Bolivia and Paraguay desired such assistance. The Minister said that he was going to send a cable to his Government stating that a resumption of mediation negotiations would in no way be incompatible with the situation at Geneva.