822.51/1017: Telegram

The Chargé in Ecuador (Nester) to the Secretary of State

96. For Rubber Reserve from Lowry.8 Minister of Finance Illing-worth is proposing to use funds from premium payments9 in connection with construction of two roads into Ecuadoran Oriente.

The first is from Cuenca to Méndez which according to estimate of local engineers will require 10 million sucres and 2 years to complete. The second is from Ibarro to Aguarico in northern Oriente. Practically nothing is known about this route or about the amount of rubber in the area. Norton10 reports some rubber around Méndez and we expect to begin immediately to improve the existing trail from Cuenca to facilitate exploitation. Cost of trail work will be about sucres 75,000. The Minister proposes to apply for a loan from Export-Import Bank to build these roads and to use premium payments to pay interest on and amortize the loans. He is also considering the same arrangement for road construction work in Santo Domingo area. Although we doubt that the construction of roads into the Oriente could be completed in time to be of value to the war program, the Ecuadoran Government for political and military reasons appears to be quite strongly in favor of this plan. The Minister asks that Reserve arrange to have American engineers sent down to contract with the Ecuadoran Government to do this road work. We have no doubt that if work is to be completed within a reasonable time a good deal of equipment from the United States will be necessary also.

The Minister requests that you send a reply by cable. [Lowry.]

Nester
  1. Walker W. Lowry, representative of the Rubber Development Corporation in Ecuador.
  2. With regard to the nature of these payments, see telegram No. 423, May 13, from The Chargé in Ecuador, p. 288.
  3. Presumably E. Hope Norton, President of the Ecuadoran Development Corporation.