The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1935. A WAR HALTS

Southland Times, Issue 25312, 15 June 1935, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1935. A WAR HALTS

After many failures, intervention has succeeded in bringing Bolivia and Paraguay to a realization that the war, in the Gran Chaco is unprofitable to both. Unfortunately the efforts of the League of Nations to bring about an armistice with the idea of effecting a lasting peace by means of negotiation were ineffectual, but the neighbouring South American States have been successful, and it is to be supposed that these States exerted pressure as well as argument upon the combatants. Both Uruguay and Argentine were definitely on the side of Paraguay when the question of the Gran Chaco was discussed by the League Assembly. They protested vigorously against a proposal that Paraguay should be punished because she declined to accept the League’s proposals for an armistice, the representative of Uruguay being particularly outspoken in declaring that Bolivia was the aggressor, but that in any case the League was not in a position to state which of the republics could be called the aggressor, and, therefore, had no right to attempt the enforcement of its ideas upon that State. Certainly the Paraguayan case is strong. Bolivia has put forward claims to the Gran Chaco based upon rather flimsy evidence connected with the administrative divisions under the ancient Spanish rule; but Paraguay’s claim to the Gran Chaco is founded upon actual provincial boundaries supported by an acceptance of them over a large number of years. When the South American .republics threw off Spanish rule the delimitations of the liberated States. were set by the old provincial boundaries and the Paraguayans contend that these boundaries gave the Gran Chaco to them. Bolivia’s claim is based upon administrative limits connected with an overriding tribunal of justice under the Spanish crown, but, as the Paraguayans say, if this is to be taken as the basis of a claim to the Gran Chaco, then Bolivia has a right to claim the whole of Argentine since it also was included in the judicial area, into which the Gran Chaco as well as the whole of Paraguay fell. Bolivia made no effort to secure the Gran Chaco until, as a result of its disastrous co-operation with Peru in a war with Chile, she lost access to the sea. Cut off from the Pacific, she turned to the East and sought a workable port on the river Paraguay.' The ports she possessed were not adequate to her needs and so an effort to secure a point upon the river further south lead her to the Gran Chaco adventure. To support this claim she alleged that the Paraguayans had seized the Gran Chaco and had disposed

of large portions of it to Argentine settlers without the authority of Bolivia. The League of Nations has not offered any information on these two claims, but it presented to the two republics terms upon which the armistice could be arranged and negotiations could be effected. Paraguay all along has refused to consider any discussion of the original claim, arguing that the only point to be considered was the immediate events leading up to the war. Efforts to bring pressure on the republics by the withholding of munitions of war produced protests from Bolivia, because while she was unable to import munitions under this ruling, Paraguay was more effectively supplied, and, therefore, was placed at a great advantage. The protest by Uruguay and Argentine was certainly impressive and it appeared to halt any action by the League Assembly. But there are reasons for believing that the attitude of the Assembly spurred the other American States to another effort to bring the contestants to their senses. The war has been bitter, it has been marked by heavy casualties with each side believing that its cause was righteous. The terms upon which the armistice has been arranged have not yet been made public, but if they' result in an end to this unfortunate war by means of negotiations, even if a compromise is required, the world will have placed before it another instance of the futility of war, and of the dangers of headstrong action by independent States. Actually the effect of the costly fighting in the Gran Chaco has been to bring the two republics to a realization that they must negotiate a peace, and it is to be hoped to an understanding of the melancholy fact that if they had been as sensible a few years ago they would have both saved a lot of money and a lot of lives. {