724.3415/4372: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
125. Your 354, November 24, 10 p.m. Please make reply to Avenol as follows:
“I duly transmitted to my Government the courteous invitation of the Assembly of the League of Nations conveyed in your letter of November 24, 1934, to cooperate in the work of the Neutral Supervisory Commission set up under paragraph 12 of part 4 of the report adopted on that date by the Assembly concerning the dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay. In reply I am directed to express the appreciation of my Government for this invitation and to say that my Government, taking into consideration that the Neutral Supervisory Commission will be composed of representatives of American States meeting on American soil for the specific purpose of supervising and facilitating the execution of measures relating to the cessation of hostilities, which measures would have been previously agreed to by both parties to the dispute, will be happy to cooperate with the Neutral Supervisory Commission by appointing a member of the Commission, who would, however, participate in the labors of the Commission without the power to vote or to commit the United States except under specific instructions from the Government of the United States.
My Government desires me to add a reference to paragraph 13 of part 4 of the report, which provides for a conference of representatives of American States to meet at Buenos Aires within 1 month from the date of the cessation of hostilities for the purpose of conducting negotiations looking to the conclusion of a treaty of peace. My Government has noted that the report provides that the President of the Argentine Republic would be requested to fix the date of the conference and to invite, among other American States, to participate therein the States represented on the ‘Washington Committee of Neutrals’, of which the United States is one. I am directed to inform you that my Government upon receipt of an invitation from the President of the Argentine Republic to take part in such conference will be happy to accept.”
Deliver foregoing reply tomorrow, December 7, in the forenoon. Department will release it for publication here at noon tomorrow.