File No. 722.2315/587.
The American Minister to Ecuador to the Secretary of State.
Quito, May 27, 1913.
Department’s telegram May 19 to Peru. I have had a long interview with Dillon, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs. He believes there must be a mistake in the telegram from Lima, as he understands that the President of Peru wishes the Ecuadorian Government to ask for withdrawal of troops whose presence is regarded as a violation of status quo, which demand would give him sufficient excuse for withdrawal.
Regarding general boundary dispute, Minister said positively that Ecuador could never allow such an important matter, involving its very life, to be submitted to The Hague, but that his Government was prepared at any time to take up direct settlement and to appoint a plenipotentiary to meet a Peruvian plenipotentiary in any American capital, preferably Washington. He much appreciated, as did the Ecuadorian people, the good offices of the United States.