Change in Command

Nobody loves a mercenary who loses. That lesson was brought home to plump General Hans Kundt of Germany and Bolivia last week. Fresh from Prussian drill fields, he whipped the dazed Indian conscripts of Bolivia into the semblance of a modern fighting machine, commanded them in the Chaco War against Paraguay.

Once there were roses in the streets for him (TIME, Jan. 2). Nothing was too good for el Aleman ("The German") who checked Paraguay's steady advance through the pest-ridden Chaco swamps. With more men, more money, better guns. his troops beat off Paraguayan attacks on Bolivia's Verdun in the Chaco. muddy, ramshackle Fort Saavedra (TIME, Dec. 12, et seq.~).

But before long Bolivian money began to give out. Mountain Indian boys, with no idea what the war was all about, were conscripted in herds and sent to die in the steaming Chaco. Last week t'.ie lighting Paraguayans struck back and Fort Saavedra fell. So did two more stockaded mounds known as Forts Cuatro Vientos and Bolivar. Slaughtered were 15,000 Bolivian troops, 1.700 within two days. Nine regiments surrendered unconditionally. Of the Bolivian army.in the field only the 7th Division remained intact. General Kundt, old and broken, was promptly relieved of his command. Somehow Col. Enrique Penaranda had managed to wriggle through the encircling Paraguayans and escape with 3,000 men. The Government made him a Brigadier General, handed him the nation's defense. Meanwhile at the Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Paraguay proposed an unrestricted truce. Peace in Chaco seemed at hand.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.