The Secretary of State to Minister Sherrill.
Washington , May 12, 1910 .
Repeat to Petropolis and yourself act on the following instruction: Say to the minister for foreign affairs that the Government of the United States is momentarily apprehensive of unnecessary war between Ecuador and Peru. Believing that the Governments of the Argentine Republic and Brazil feel the same apprehension [Page 450] and fully share with the United States the desire to avert, by any proper means, an eventuality so dissonant to the spirit of Pan American relations, this Government inquires whether the Government to which you are accredited will join in a tripartite offer of mediation upon the basis of some such joint communication as the following, which you will hand textually to the minister for foreign affairs, at the same time pointing out the advisability of secrecy until the notes are presented and the great urgency of a reply which is the reason for cabling an actual text in view of the fact that this opportunity to contribute to the cause of American peace may disappear at any moment:
The undersigned representatives of the Argentine Republic, Brazil, and the United States of America, acting under telegraphic instructions from their respective Governments, have the honor to make the present joint identic communication simultaneously to their excellencies, the ministers for foreign affairs of Ecuador and Peru.
Actuated by a sincere desire that peace be not broken between any two of the sister American Republics, whose mutual regard, common institutions and inseparable interests should be a sufficient guarantee of a conciliatory spirit, and believing also that the moment has arrived for recourse by the Governments of Ecuador and Peru to the mediation of friendly and disinterested Governments, strangers to the dispute under the obligation of article 2, title 2, of The Hague convention of 1899 for the pacific settlement of international disputes, to which both Governments duly adhered, and which they solemnly reaffirmed as signatories to The Hague convention of 1907; and believing also that under articles 2 and 3 of the same conventions, it is opportune that friendly Governments should offer their good offices to avert war, the Presidents of the Argentine Republic, of Brazil, and of the United States of America ask earnest consideration of the following views by the Governments concerned:
It is unthinkable that Ecuador and Peru should go to war over a boundary dispute which both, by solemn agreement, submitted to arbitration. Neither would it be conscionable to sanction the repudiation of the award in advance by either party, for such sanction would dishonor the enlightened institution of arbitration, to which institution of an advanced civilization the American Republics are committed.
If the Governments of Ecuador and Peru will withdraw their forces from the frontier, suspend mobilization and other measures of preparation for war and await eventualities, then in case no award is made or in case serious difficulties shall subsequently arise, the three Governments will undertake a satisfactory solution by mediation.
As for the question of an exchange of expressions of regret at the violence done the respective citizens and officials in the country of the other, no one can doubt the sincerity and good intention of each Government as to those regrettable incidents, and it should be a matter of no difficulty to arrive at a dignified adjustment through the mediating republics.
In offering these good offices on the part of their Governments, which entertain for the Governments concerned feelings of the greatest friendship, the undersigned avail, etc.