A second impetus was the Canadian settlement act, which prevented the form of cooperative farming that was practised in Russia. In 1919 a delegation was sent to South America to find a new home. The Paraguayan state was interested in opening the vast undeveloped Chaco to industrious settlers and made a considerable number of concessions to the delegation. Concessions included freedom from military service, the right to run their own German language schools, a far reaching guarantee to autonomously manage their own affairs within the jurisdiction of the colony without government interference, absolute religious freedom and an open immigration policy allowing more Mennonites settlers. The Mennonites bought the necessary land at an inflated price from the Argentine firm Casado, one of the largest landholders in the Chaco. 1743 settlers came to Paraguay from Canada in 1927.