DISPUTE ENDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 July 1938, Page 5

DISPUTE ENDED

FOLLOWING ON CENTURY OF BLOODSHED GRAN CHACO BOUNDARIES DETERMINED. SUCCESSFUL MEDIATION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. BUENOS AIRES, July 20. After a century of bloodshed, costing more than 100,000 lives, the Gran Chaco dispute between Paraguay and Bolivia, was finally adjudicated today by the mediation of six American nations.

The treaty, the terms of which were settled tonight, will provide for ratification by popular referendum, after which the Presidents of six nations, including the United States, will set up an irrevocable boundary in the Chaco. !

The dispute between Paraguay and Bolivia over possession of a large part of the Gran Chaco, a more or less fever-ridden jungle area in which it is thought there may be petroleum deposits, has blazed up intermittently for the last hundred years. To bring about peace between the two countries has taxed the statesmanship of a number of the South American Republic diplomats for a number of years. A truce was declared in 1935, since when there has been very little fighting. The League of Nations previously made successful attempts at mediation, as did the United States Government. During the several years of warfare both countries were practically bled white, and it is anticipated it will take decades for them to recover. Bolivia, which has a better title to the area than Paraguay, whose claim to it precipitated the war, is afraid that if Paraguay secures the Gran Chaco she will lose her access to the Atlantic through the Paraguay and Pilcomayo rivers, which bound the disputed area.