810.20 Defense/3031
Memorandum by the Liaison Officer (Wilson)29
Major Hero, Operations Division, War Department, with whom the question, raised in your memorandum of August 28,29a was discussed, states that the War Department is not engaged in working out an agreement for the cooperative defense of the Galápagos Islands.
He explained that the existing verbal understanding30 seemed to be working satisfactorily and he assumed that General Andrews had decided that, as in the case of Salinas, it would be better to continue on the present basis rather than to open up negotiations and incur the risk of ultimately obtaining a less satisfactory arrangement. Major Hero pointed out that the decision in this matter rested with General Andrews.
- Addressed to Mr. Bonsal, Chief of the Division of the American Republics, Mr. Woodward, Assistant Chief, and Mr. Melby of the same Division.↩
- Not found in Department files.↩
- A comment in the handwriting of the Assistant Liaison Officer, David Key, appears as follows: “In a liaison meeting last December, Mr. Welles made known the Ecuadoran Government’s desire that the United States urgently cooperate in the defense of the Ecuadoran coast and the Galápagos and that there was no objection to proceeding in these matters without awaiting the signature of written agreements.”↩