File No. 822.00/210.]

The Secretary of State to the Chargé d’Affaires of Ecuador.

Sir: I desire to acknowledge the receipt of your courteous note of the 18th instant, in which you give an account of the events which led up to the revolutionary movement that recently developed in Ecuador, and make comment on the political situation existing in your country, according to the information in your possession at the time of your writing. You point out that with the exception of a few outlying districts, the port of Guayaquil, and the city of Esmeraldas, the Government of Señor Carlos Freile Zaldumbide was recognized as the legitimate, constituted authority by the inhabitants of the entire Republic, who condemned the movement inaugurated by the proclamation of General Montero, in December last, at Guayaquil. You add that Ecuador understands its responsibility in guaranteeing protection of life and property and will satisfy any legitimate claim for damages growing out of the political disturbances upon Ecuadorian territory.

You state that any drastic action taken by the American forces at Guayaquil in order to afford protection to the interests of American citizens established in Ecuador would have had a most unfortunate political effect in your country and throughout South America.

In this acknowledgment of your communication I desire to assure you that the American Government would have sincerely regretted any necessity for such action in Ecuador as you refer to, but undoubtedly would have been delinquent in its clear duty if it had failed to make all adequate preparation for an emergency which might have arisen from the turbulent conditions then existing in Ecuador.

The expression of the friendly feeling of yourself and your Government, conveyed in your note, are cordially reciprocated; and it must be apparent that the Government of the United States has consistently pursued a course in its relations with Ecuador which has been dictated by its high esteem of the friendship it has always desired to cultivate with that country.

The assurances which you have given that the claims of the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company, arising out of the past conflict, will be promptly and fully paid, have been received by me with satisfaction.

The Department has been gratified at the receipt of reports indicating that the revolutionary movement in Ecuador is at an end, and ventures to voice the hope that normal conditions will be completely and permanently restored in that Republic, in order that a new era of political and economic advance may be inaugurated which will assure to the country a development to which it has a right to aspire and enable the Republic to fulfill its obligations toward all legitimate enterprises within its borders—an object in the accomplishment of which all patriotic effort should unite in order to procure for the Ecuadorian nation the full benefits that should naturally flow from a continued maintenance of constitutional order.

Accept [etc.]

P. C. Knox.