722.2315/936a
The President of Ecuador (Paez) to President Roosevelt5
My Dear Mr. President: In my desire to collaborate in the strengthening of peace on the American continent and to contribute to the success of the conference which you have been so good as to advocate,—with so much wisdom and timeliness,—for liquidating the problems of America, I take the liberty of submitting to your high judgment a summary of the boundary negotiations between Ecuador and Peru during recent years.
In June 1924 Ecuador and Peru signed a diplomatic instrument which has been denominated the Ponce-Castro Oyanguren Protocol,6 the purpose of which was to permit the two countries to settle their boundary differences in a compromise manner.
This Protocol remained a dead letter until October 18, 1933, on which date Dr. Polo, in the name of the Peruvian Government, invited the Ecuadoran Government “to initiate without delay at this capital (Lima) the direct negotiations agreed upon in the Protocol signed at Quito on June 21, 1924, for the settlement of the boundary question pending between our respective countries.”7
[Page 109]On the 21st of November, 1933, Ecuador accepted the invitation extended by Dr. Polo, Peruvian Minister of Foreign Relations. On January 8, 1934, Ecuador invited Peru to request Your Excellency’s leave to appoint, in accordance with the Protocol, the Washington Commissions.
You, Excellency, were so good as to accept the joint request of Ecuador and Peru on the 12th of February 1934.8
On the 13th of April the Ecuadoran negotiators met with those of Peru at Lima and held a first conversation in an atmosphere of frank cordiality. At this meeting Peru’s Minister of Foreign Relations, Dr. Polo, offered to prepare a Memorandum “which will contain the line which Peru will propose as the basis of the discussion”. A Memorandum which was to be presented at the next meeting of the delegates. It was agreed upon, further, that in the minutes of this first meeting there would be placed on record the desire of the two Governments to effect a rapid negotiation and “the sincere purpose of putting aside useless formulisms, using effective means for achieving the strong desire of the two peoples”.
On April 28, 1934, the second conference was held, at which the minutes of the 13th were approved without their being signed. Minister Polo did not present the Memorandum offered.
On May 21, Minister Polo said to the Ecuadoran Minister, Dr. Viteri, that he had ready the Memorandum with the line which they would propose to us.
On August 9, 1934, the Ecuadoran and Peruvian negotiators met again and the latter declared their desire to enter then on dealing with the negotiations with regularity, setting the days on which the sessions would be held. The Ecuadoran Minister, Dr. Viteri, asked that the minutes of the session of April be signed, to which the Peruvian Minister, Dr. Polo, replied that it was not possible, as they were not yet written.
On August 13, 1934, there was held a new meeting, which Minister Polo did not attend. And after long discussion with Peruvian negotiator, Castro Oyanguren, author of the Protocol which originated all the negotiations, declared, in the name of the Peruvian Government, that he could not maintain the offer that Peru should be the party to first present the line.
On November 11, 1935, Ecuador, because of a principle of delicacy, saw herself obliged to withdraw her special negotiator at Lima, leaving only an official representation, for in more than a year it had not been possible to obtain a single conference with the Peruvian negotiators.
[Page 110]On December 26, 1935, the Minister of Ecuador at Lima, Dr. Viteri, sent an invitation to the Peruvian Government to constitute the delegations at Washington, since the negotiations could not prosper at Lima. The Peruvian Chancellor refused this in a note of March 25, 1936, alleging that it was necessary first to determine, at Lima, the character of the arbitration to which the question was going to be submitted.
The Peruvian Government has taken pains to spread the idea that Ecuador was refusing any settlement since she did not even wish to discuss the character of the arbitration. This, Excellency, is false, absolutely false. Ecuador does not refuse it, but she does refuse to do it at Lima, and that is why she has proposed to Peru to locate the negotiation at Washington, in accordance with what was agreed upon; and there at Washington, under Your Excellency’s high auspices, my country is prepared to discuss even the character of the arbitration, in spite of the fact that the Ponce-Castro Oyanguren Protocol contemplates nothing of the kind.
The futility of prosecuting negotiations at Lima will not be hidden from Your Excellency’s penetration,—at Lima, where, since October 18, 1933, we have hardly been able, after a thousand efforts on our part, to secure three meetings with the negotiators of the other side for the purpose of concluding a discussion which has now lasted one hundred and seven years; where Peru, after having offered to present the basic [boundary] line for discussion, withdrew that offer for reasons which I can do no less than characterize as futile.
Under these circumstances, I believe, Excellency, that any negotiation at Lima is a failure in advance. Ecuador, who desires to preserve peace in America, who does not desire to see herself obliged to defend by arms her vital interests, has recourse, through me, to Your Excellency’s equity and, laying the situation bare before you, requests of Your Excellency your valued good offices to the end that the Peruvian Government, honoring her pledged word, may come where she offered to come; that is to say, to Washington, where, under the equitable and serene auspices of Your Excellency, to whom both countries together entrusted the solution of so arduous a problem, the latter may come to a happy solution.
I ask a thousand pardons of Your Excellency for having troubled you with so long a communication, but I am obliged so to trouble you by my duty as a Mandatary, my love for peace, and the sincere and deep admiration which I profess for the high merits which adorn Your Excellency, among which merits the highest is your inestimable spirit of justice.
I beg Your Excellency [etc.]
- Handed to President Roosevelt by the Ecuadoran Minister, June 1.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, pp. 304–305.↩
- See ibid., 1933, vol. iv, pp. 561 ff.↩
- See note from the Secretary of State to the Peruvian Ambassador, February 12, 1934, Foreign Relations, 1934, vol. iv, p. 462.↩