File No. 722.2315/600.
The Minister of Peru to the Secretary of State.
July 18, 1913.
Sir: I have the honor to confirm by this note my night letter of this date, which reads as follows:
The Secretary of State, Washington. I have the honor to inform you that my Government delivered to the diplomatic representatives in Lima of the Mediating Powers a memorandum in reference to the Morona incident. I also beg to inform you that I am addressing a note to you giving the views of my Government for a solution of the boundary dispute with Ecuador. I trust that, as I am in the Yosemite, you will accept this communication; but should you, after receiving my note, desire to discuss the matter, I beg you to advise me % the Peruvian Consul, Los Angeles, and I shall proceed to Washington. Yours very respectfully, (signed) F. A. Pezet, Minister of Peru.
In accordance with the above and acting upon the instructions received, I have the honor to inform you that on the 15th instant [Page 1153] my Government handed in to the representatives of the Mediating Powers at Lima a memorandum in which it declared that, following their advice, it had reduced its military forces to a peace footing; that the small detachments of soldiers that it now has on the rivers are solely there for the maintenance of order and a guaranty to life and property in such regions; that peace in the Morona River is threatened by the action of the Ecuadorian Government in granting concessions to European enterprises for the colonization of lands possessed by Peru and occupied by Peruvians; that the recent incidents in the Morona River which culminated in the destruction of the military posts and the killing of soldiers and settlers on that river justified the presence in that region of a military detachment while proving that its force (thirty men) has been entirely inadequate to properly protect the settlers and to maintain order in the region; that, yielding however to a sentiment in favor of peace, and to show its interest in the mediation, and as proof of its desire to avoid delay in reaching a definite solution of the boundary question with Ecuador, it has ordered the Prefect of the Department of Loreto to maintain in the Morona only police authority so as to protect the inhabitants against attacks by the savages and the renewal of occurrences similar to those in the Putumayo region; and, finally, my Government expresses the wish that the Mediating Powers shall be able to carry out their generous intent of bringing Ecuador to agree to their recommendation of taking to The Hague Tribunal the pending controversy, and recalls the fact that Peru has accepted unconditionally this recommendation, as its constant desire has been the settlement of this long pending controversy.
This Legation already has had the honor to bring to your attention the memorandums of July 6 and 29 of the year 1910, and the one of March 25, 1911, and I presume that in view of the personal interest that you have manifested in behalf of a speedy settlement of this boundary dispute, you have read very carefully these important statements that embody the views of my Government in support of the position that it has taken in reference to the controversy, and to the absolute necessity of ending it before an impartial tribunal such as The Hague.
My Government, that has consistently advocated the settlement of international disputes through arbitration, now looks to you as the foremost advocate of this principle and as the prime mover in an international peace policy, to exert your great personal influence to induce the Government of Ecuador to submit to the recommendation of the Mediating Powers.
My Government has shown its love of peace by its unconditional acceptance of the several recommendations of the Mediating Powers; by the manner in which it heeded the advice of the previous Administration in Washington to reduce its military forces to a peace footing; and finally by its avowed purpose of submitting to the eventuality of an arbitral award a question that involves a vast territory over which it not only claims sovereignty but is in actual possession of, whilst its adversary has but a mere claim unsupported by any of the attributes which constitute the essentials of ownership.
In conclusion I would recall that for more than half a century we have tried to reach a definite solution of outstanding boundary [Page 1154] questions with our neighbors by direct negotiations; unfortunately all of these have proved ineffectual and the futility of renewing these in any manner or form has been sufficiently proven by subsequent events and by the impossibility of reaching any kind of understanding through the unwillingness of the contending parties to withdraw from their maximum pretensions so arbitration has been resorted to as the sole means of attaining an end which each party in solemn treaties has acknowledged to be its desideratum and aim.
Consequently my Government can not see any good to be derived from reopening discussions which while they have lasted have not resulted in anything practical and on the contrary have tended, after each successive failure, to embitter the controversy.
However, my Government, bent upon a peaceful settlement of all its pending questions with foreign powers, would feel very grateful if in the present case the Mediating Powers could be convinced that the only solution lies in an arbitration of the question, and then exert all possible influence over the Government of Ecuador to the end that it consent to submit the present dispute to The Hague Tribunal of Arbitration.
I have [etc.]