422.11G93/1954
The Chargé in Ecuador ( Sparks ) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 28.]
Sir: With reference to my despatch No. 610 of November 26, 1936, concerning the activities of the Ecuadorean Government in the matter [Page 557] of the suit brought by the Central Bank of Ecuador against The Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company, I have the honor to report that El Comerico of December 16, 1936, carried an item relative thereto. The headlines would indicate that orders have been issued “to suspend the embargo of the properties of the Railway”. However, the body of the item explains that after the embargo had been decreed, proceedings were instituted to enforce it and to liquidate the judgment credit, and that the suit had advanced to the point of evaluating the embargoed property. However, El Comereio is now informed that when these latter proceedings were about to be concluded, the Government ordered their suspension until further orders.
An opportunity has not been afforded me to obtain official information on this reported development. However, it is probable that the decision of the Government to suspend proceedings temporarily is due in part to the negotiations for a settlement of the Railway debt that Mr. Avilés is now carrying on in London, and possibly to some development in the negotiations for the same purpose that Mr. Sherwell apparently is conducting with the bondholders in New York in representation of the Manufacturers Trust Company of New York. In any case, this suspension will remove temporarily the possibility of precipitate action by the Government, and may be indicative that a serious attempt is now being made to reach an amicable settlement of this vexatious problem.93
Respectfully yours,
- No part was taken by the Department of State in subsequent negotiations.↩