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  4. Document 817

740.0011 PW/1–3045: Telegram

The Ambassador in Ecuador (Scotten) to the Secretary of State

Quito, January 30, 1945—4 p.m.
[Received 8:18 p.m.]

87. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has just told me that after some difficulty with the Assembly the President has received authority from it to declare a state of war with Japan. He added that under Ecuadoran constitutional procedure the declaration will be made by the Executive and not by the Assembly. He added that the President is studying the most appropriate method of making the declaration and that it will probably be announced at the end of this week.

It is possible that the declaration may be made on February 3 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marshal Sucre.14

I venture to suggest that immediately after this declaration is made public an appropriate telegram from President Roosevelt to President Velasco Ibarra would cause an excellent impression here.

Scotten
  1. Antonio José de Sucre, Liberator of Ecuador from Spain.↩