File No. 2540/163–167.
[Inclosure.]
Arbitration tribunal between the Government of
Ecuador and the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company.
Quito, November 24,
1908.
To His Excellency, the President of the United
States of America, Theodore Roosevelt.
Your Excellency: The undersigned,
designated by their excellencies the Presidents of the United States
of America and of Ecuador, respectively, as arbiters in the
disagreements and controversies which arose between the Government
of Ecuador and the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company, with respect
to the fulfilment of their original contracts, have the honor of
informing Your Excellency that, on the fifth day of October of the
year one thousand nine hundred and seven, they constituted
themselves an arbitration tribunal, as provided in article
twenty-seven of the contract celebrated by the parties and
authorized by the Congresses of the years one thousand eight hundred
and ninety-seven and ninety-eight, and that said tribunal was
installed in the ministry of foreign relations of the Republic of
Ecuador, as is set forth in the corresponding minutes and other
documents, which have been published in Bulletin No. 5 of said
ministry, and in the collective notes in which advice was given of
the fact to the minister for foreign relations of Ecuador and to the
Secretary of State of the United States of America.
They also beg to inform Your Excellency that the Government of
Ecuador, the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company, and the attorney
of the council of foreign bondholders of London, and of the
committee of the holders of bonds of the first mortgage on the
railway, celebrated, on the thirtieth day of September of the year
one thousand nine hundred and eight, by a public deed, a contract
“ad-referendum” for a definite transaction, which contract was
discussed and approved and declared law of the Republic of Ecuador,
by a legislative decree, on the first day of November of the present
year, with the sanction of the Executive.
The Government of Ecuador and the Guayaquil and Quito Railway
Company, having petitioned the undersigned to act in fulfilment of
the second part of the nineteenth article of the definite
transaction contract, the undersigned have the honor of putting into
Your Excellency’s hands, through the medium of the honorable
Secretary of State, an authentic and legal copy of the deed and a
copy of “El Registro Oficial” (The Official Register), number eight
hundred and eight, in which will be found the contract of definite
transaction, which the undersigned respect and accept as a
legitimate and legal act of the contracting parties, and which puts
an end to the controversies that arose as the result of the lack of
fulfilment of the original contracts.
The undersigned place this before Your Excellency for the
corresponding legal ends.
Respectfully submitted.
- Williams C. Fox.
- Cesar Borja.
