File No. 822.00/330.
The American Minister to the Secretary of State.
Quito, December 24, 1913.
I have presented to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the subject of your telegram of December 18. He appreciates our motives but feels that the situation does not warrant any negotiations with the revolutionists, basing his opinion (1) on the killing of physicians and nurses of the Red Cross by revolutionists in so brutal a way that his Government cannot treat with them with self-respect; and (2) on the Government’s confidence in soon overcoming the revolutionists. There are two causes for the revolution: (1) the assumption that President Plaza was responsible for the killing of President Alfaro in 1912, and the intention of the revolutionists that the death of President Plaza shall follow; (2) the desire of the revolutionists to get their hands into the public treasury. These causes are probably not susceptible of compromise.