810.20 Defense/2443a: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Ecuador (Long)23

239. The Lend-Lease Agreement with Ecuador was signed April 624 and the Embassy in Washington will now proceed to deal directly with the War Department on the materials which it desires. It is believed that President Arroyo’s objection to signing an agreement on the Galápagos, similar to the one signed on January 24 between American and Ecuadoran military authorities on Salinas under the provisions of the general defense agreement, should now be obviated. The War Department believes this agreement on the Galápagos is of the utmost urgency for the defense of the hemisphere. You are requested [Page 374] to take this question up with the President at once and secure at the earliest possible date a signed agreement on this question.

Welles
  1. The Legation in Ecuador had been raised to the status of Embassy March 5, 1942.
  2. Post, p. 379.