BOLIVIA ROUTED

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1934, Page 5

BOLIVIA ROUTED

PARAGUAY’S ADVANCE SUCCESS OF STRATAGEM BIGGEST VICTORY OF WAR SEVEN FORTRESSES FALL WARFARE IN GRAN CHACO By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 6.55 p.m. New York, Nov. 17. Fort Ballivian, the keystone of Bolivia’s defences in the Gran Chaco fell before a Paraguayan stratagem, reports the Buenos Aires correspondent of the New York Times. According to reports from the scene of hostilities under this crushing blow the Bolivian southern Gran Chaco defence crumbled rapidly with a quick loss of six other important forts. The Paraguayans claim to have captured 10,000 prisoners and much war gear with a minimum amount of fighting. In a panic many Bolivian soldiers are reported to have crossed the Pilcomayo River into Argentina where a large Argentine army is being’ massed to prevent a breach of neutrality. The Paraguayan coup was effected early in the morning. Throughout the night Bolivian sentries awaited the "expected artillery bombardment preparatory to an attack, but the Paraguayans quietly surrounded the position, made a capture of a considerable Bolivian force, which it is reported, has been lured out of position by a Paraguayan feint at petroleum fields to the northward.

A cable from Asuncion says Bolivia’s Polcomayo army collapsed on Saturday when seven Bolivian forts fell into Paraguay’s hands. A wave of rejoicing swept the Paraguay capital as the news spread that Fort Ballivian, the stout outpost against which five successive waves of Paraguayan soldiers had beaten only to fall back in bloody failure, had been taken. Many predicted that the two and a-half years’ bitter fighting for the possession of the low, swampy Chaco Boreal was nearly at an end. SHATTERED FORCES FLEEING. With the shattered remnants of the Bolivian forces in the Pilcomayo sector retreating northward along the only road left open to them, that following the banks of the river, reports reaching Asuncion said Paraguay had taken 10,000 prisoners in a smashing victory considered the biggest of the war. The fort that fell with Fort Ballivian included Chachalla, further up the river, which earlier reports indicated might provide the retreating Bolivian, with their second line of defence. Bolivian troops were reported to be fleeing in wild disorder toward Villamontes, a major Bolivian army base. Paraguayan troops swept into Ballavian at 7 a.m. on Saturday after an allnight forced march from the small fort Independicia, which their surprise coun-ter-offensive, coming with the rainy season already overdue, captured on Friday. Bolivia’s defenders, their communications severed by the Paraguayan advance in Canada el Carmen sector, had already evacuated the fort alter setting fire to ammunition dumps and supply warehouses. They attempted no resistance, the War Office said.