MOBILISE!

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 183, 4 August 1932, Page 7

MOBILISE!

BOLIVIAN ORDER. UNDECLARED WAR. Boundary Dispute With Paraguay. WOMEN DEMAND ENLISTMENT. iUnited P.A.-Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11 a.m.) LAPAZ (Bolivia), August 3. The Ministry of War on Wednesday ordered the mobilisation of all classes of youths between 22 and 29 in anticipation of war with Paraguay in the Chaco region.

A high oflicial states that Bolivia will inform the League of Nations that an immediate settlement of the Chaco-dis-pute must be settled or she will go to war.

A message from Asuncion, Paraguay, states that hundreds of excited Paraguayan women, society belles, debutantes and broad-shouklered farm wives besieged the Government on Wednesday demanding the right to go to war. They came by the dozens, hanging on trucks and wagons and crowding out trains, and, rushed for the stadium where recruiting activities, looking toward war with Bolivia, are centred. The women demanded active service on the battlcfront. The Government, however, regarded this as impossible in the deep Chaco wilderness, where even the mildest non-combatant service is considered too severe for women. The officials tried- to suggest service 'in civilian capacities at home by filling the positions vacated by men, but the women scoffed at this idea. If Paraguay goes to war, they said, their place should be in El Chaco not at home. In a proclamation, President Guggiari called upon the army to prepare to achieve deeds of prowess. Troops Leave for "The Front." ' Five hundred Paraguayan soldiers, the first to leave Asuncion for the front to engage in an undeclared war against Bolivia, started up the river on Wednesday toward El Chaco. There was considerable confusion, and nearly a disaster at the start, so eager were the men to join up, and 3D" 4 volunteers stormed the vessel, which • nearly capsized. They were ejected. During the night 1200 men reached the capital in answer to. the mobilisation order. Most of them are college students and schoolboys. Captain Almonacid, the Argentine flyer who served with the French during the war, arrived from Buenos Ayres to train the Paraguayan Air Corps.

El Gran Cliaco has long been the subject of disputes between Paraguay and Bolivia, bpth States claiming- a generous share of the other's territory: After being on the verge of war in, December,"l92B, a protocol' was accepted by both countries in January; 1929, and • a judicial body appointed by the Pan-American Union, considered the boundary question. Ofher nations share portions of the Gran Chaco, which totals 180,000 square miles, these being Argentina and Brazil. After a dispute with the' latter country, Bolivia received-payment of £1,000,000 sterling in 1928, as the result of a treaty which was later ratified. This money was to be devoted to the building of a railway.

The Bolivian claim against Paraguay concerns all the district between the Pilcomayo and Paraguay Rivers, whereas the Paraguayan clai?n would cut Bolivia off altogether from the Paraguay River.