Norwich bulletin., 1920-06-30
LEAGUE OF NATIONS MAY
 SETTLE cHACo DISPUTE

Buenos Aires, June 29. - The famous Tacna and Africa dispute involving Chile. Peru and Bolivia, is not the only South American problem which may go before the League of Nations for settlement There has existed for years a controversy between Paraguay and Bolivia over a strip of territory in the heart of South America as biz as the state of California This it is understood. is on the programme for consideration by the league.
 It Is probably not generally known that when the American peace experts. under Colonel House. collected their data on world problems for use at the Paris peace conference. they included report on the issues between Bolivia and Para quay of the possession of the terri tory. which is called on Bolivian maps the Bolivian Chaco and on Paraguan maps the Paraguayan Chaco.
 The case of the Chaco is known 10 have been also brought before the con- | ference by the Bolivian peace delegate,
 Senator Montes II was decided. it Is understood here. to postpone the question
 for early settlement by the league | These problems hold for Bolivia. hem med in on all sides by other states. the realization of her greatest political and commercial ambition. her own territorial | outlet to the sea Possession of the port | | Pacific. and. curious as it may seem. possession of the Chaco. or at least a part of it. would give her egree to the Atlantic. For the Chaco borders inc | great River Paraguay. affluent Of the Riv-
 CT Plate. and on the Chaco side of the
 river, 2.o00 miles from Buenos Aires. ls
 a little port called Bahia Negra. Hero ocean steamships from the United States and Europe could take on cargo trans ported across the northern edge of th, Chaco from the Bilivian mines and
 farms
 But in the year 1886. a few years aft
 CT Bolivia had lost in the war the Pa cific port of Antofagasta and was turnini ) her eyes eastward. Bahia NeEra wal r seized by Paraguay and has been in he possession ever since. Paraguay. further more. made land allotments in the Chaco f whose unsurpassed pasture and great e quebracho forests were beginning to at . trace the whe man. mysterious m
 explored land. stretching northward
 from the Pilcomayo river on the Argen
 tine border and westward from the Riv , CT Paraguay. into undisputed Bolivian
 territory. 1t has not been directly cross
 ed by white man since the days of tn Spanish conquerors. since the year 1S4
 to be exact. Except near the rivers. Is inhabited only by savage Indiai tribes to this day. but both nations lool forward to its possibilities. which recent
 ly have included that of finding petrol cum.
 Bolivia protested the seizure of Pa hia NeEra and also made land allot
 ments iI> the Chaco. It is true tha Bolivia had an eastern outlet already b the River Paraguay, but her commerc l had to go through the Brazilian river DOT of Corumba, a little north of Bahia Ne gra, moving down the Bolivian city e Santa Cruz by mule team, along in I northern edge of the Chaco as 1t sti I does
 To uphold their claim both govern 2 ments unearthed musty archives in Mad
 rid dealing with the expeditions of in
 Spanish conquerors and the land grant
 of the Spanish Crown in South Americ; 4 Various diplomatic negotiations have bee d initiated between the two government from time to time looking to a divisio 8 of the territory, but either one congres
 or the other refused to ratify the arre, d ments which the diplomats drew up