A WAR ENDED.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 14 June 1935, Page 6

A WAR ENDED.

The long and bitter warfare between Paraguay and Bolivia, now ended, has taken a heavy toll of both countries. Paraguay, in spite of the victories which have attended its arms in recent months, has paid a terrible toll, its scant population of 800,000 being now sadly lessened. It has lost the greater part of its able manhood, farmers, artisans and professional men having contributed the main strength of the country’s fighting force and having suffered in equal proportions. Bolivia has had a much larger population to draw on, but it has been compelled to include, in a policy of conscription of all available manpower, its substantial Indian population, which is described as living in “isolation and bitter slavery.” These people, it is said, have been compelled to leave their high villages for the fever-haunted jungles of the Chaco, and few of them offer even the semblance of loyalty to the Government they are compelled to serve. In Mai’ch the League of Nations more or less turned over the conduct, of the peace parleys to the group of neutral South American republics, this action being taken on the strength of an assurance from Argentina and Chile that Paraguay would hear proposals for a truce provided neighbourly guarantees of protection against subservient attack by Bolivia were given. The' League. proposed, as the basis for thcisuggested peace, an agreement to cease hostilities, to create a neutral zone under League supervision, and finally to transfer the dispute (in the event of the parties being unable to agree on vital points) to the Permanent, World Court. These proposals, it seems, have formed the basis of the settlement that has now been made.