Several references have been made in this report to military questions and their influence on the change in the parties’ attitude and on the development of the negotiations, which, apart from a brief armistice, were conducted during a period of active operations.

There is virtual silence in the history of the international labor movement on the technique of preparing international labor conventions both before and at the Peace Conference. The developments of the last fourteen years in this field must, therefore, be listed as an unexpected evolution in international coöperation. It should have been easy to see at the end of the first International Labor Conference in 1919 that the methods of preparation were defective. That the Organizing Committee of 1919 should not have had adequate information on world labor conditions is understandable; but what is not understandable is that there was scarcely any consciousness of the magnitude of the problem before the International Labor Organization in drafting suitable labor conventions.

The publication of the draft treaty of peace prepared by the Commission, the text of which has been reproduced earlier in this report, brought home to American public opinion that the Chaco conflict, the persistence of which had gradually created a sense of discouragement, as if it had been an irremediable catastrophe, could be settled by conciliation and law. The replies from the two Governments have shown that the draft represents an equitable proposal, carefully devised in all its parts for the purpose of finding the exact point at which, with a little will for peace, diametrically opposite theses and aspirations could be made to meet, and that any additional concessions to the demands of either party could only have increased the divergence between them.

On meeting for the first time, the Commission of the League of Nations wishes, first of all, to thank the Uruguayan Government and nation for its kind hospitality and for the facilities which have been afforded to it to enable its labors to proceed, according to its intentions, in an atmosphere of complete independence.