Bog War

Two hummocks in a bog are Forts Munoz and Nanawa, 60 mi. apart in the sopping Gran Chaco jungle between Paraguay and Bolivia. Last December the Paraguayans, South America's fiercest fighters, had pushed big Bolivia's lackadaisical army back to the outlying "forts" (huts on mounds) around Munoz. Last week the cloak-&-sword Bolivians, wearing second-hand U. S. uniforms, wielding jungle machetes, took "Fort" Jordan, backed the Paraguayans against Nanawa. their Verdun, a small French-built fort that was the last defense before the Paraguay River and Paraguay's second biggest city, Concepcion.

Last week Paraguay admitted that a general was a good thing even in a bog. As soon as Bolivia's German General Hans Kundt got back from exile (TIME. Jan. 2), he broke up the attacks against Munoz by counter-attacks on both wings. In the middle of the rainy season (South American armistice time), he sent his men floundering eastward on three fronts in an encircling movement. His coterie of one-time German Army officers led the little brown men in hand-to-hand Indian fighting with the machete, instead of the modern warfare that had astounded South America around Munoz. Only an occasional bombing plane tried to find a Paraguayan in the bog. In the close wet heat, under clouds of hard-biting ihenni flies, the men fought in spasms, stopped to pant, slap and rest. Against Bolivia's German management, Paraguayans had French-trained Jose Estigarribia. Retreating, they left cemeteries on whose fast-rotting headboards were names of Russian officers. General Kundt's objective was to cut off Fort Nanawa; the Paraguayans' to stop him at Nanawa's outlying "forts," Gondra and Falson.

Bolivia's economic objective was an outlet to the Paraguay River and thence to the Atlantic Ocean; little Paraguay's objectives were land and the tannin from the quebracho tree. To stop the war that has never been declared, three sets of peace makers including a neutral commission in Washington, a League of Nations observation commission and the ABCP group of neighbors (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru) had done nothing. When it was winning last December, Paraguay wanted no peace in the bog. Last week advancing Bolivia wanted no peace, suggested a 30-to 60-day armistice to bring up fresh troops and supplies, the front to remain the same as at the end of hostilities. Paraguay was willing to agree to an armistice on condition both sides evacuate the bog. Observers thought peace depended on Fort Nanawa's standing or falling.

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