El Aleman

Hawk-nosed Lord Wellington used to figure the presence of Napoleon on a battlefield as worth 40,000 men to the French. Observers agreed last week that the presence of white-headed General Hans Kundt, onetime German imperial staff officer and de facto dictator of Bolivia, on the jungle battlefront of the Gran Chaco was worth at least 5,000 men to Bolivia. Following the hysterical, flower-strewn welcome to him in La Paz three weeks ago, a huge airplane was seen circling over the battlefield last week. Open-mouthed Bolivianos in their steaming trenches told each other that it was El Aleman, the German--there is only one German to the army of Bolivia. Immediately thereafter La Paz reported that General Kundt had personally inspected every section of the Gran Chaco front. Bolivian troops had their first definite success in months, recaptured Forts Bolivar and Jayucubas from hard-fighting Paraguayans.

Real victor last week was not General Kundt but Pope Pius XI who did something his predecessor Benedict XV was never able to do through the four years of the Great War. The Papal Nuncio in La Paz persuaded both Bolivia and Paraguay to agree to a 24-hour truce commencing at 10 p. m. Christmas eve.

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