Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1906, (In two parts), Part I

The Secretary of State to the Ecuadorean Minister.

Department of State,
Washington, June 20, 1906.

No. 4.]

Sir: I duly received your polite note of the 25th ultimo, an answer to which has been delayed in the hope that I might find it practicable to accept the very kind and most courteous invitation thereby extended on behalf of the Government and people of Ecuador to visit their capital during my forthcoming trip to South America.

It is with regret that I must now admit that the engagements which I had already made before I had the honor of receiving this invitation will make it impossible, in the time at my disposal, to do more than touch at Guayaquil for a few hours. Believing with you that “better acquaintance begets higher esteem,” it will be to me a sincere pleasure and an occasion of gratification to meet such of the officers of your Government as may then find it perfectly convenient to be at Guayaquil. I shall seasonably advise the American minister beforehand of the time when I shall probably arrive at that port.

I beg that, in communicating this information to your Government, you will at the same time do me the favor to convey to it an expression of my best thanks for the invitation and of the great disappointment I feel at not being able to make my visit to Ecuador as extended and prolonged as I should wish.

Accept, etc.,

Elihu Root.