Office of the Historian

File No. 422.11G93/688.

The American Minister to the Secretary of State.

No. 31.]
American Legation,
Quito, September 14, 1913.

Sir: I have the honor to enclose copies and translations of the note which I received from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, quoting the text of Mr. Córdova’s note to the Secretary of State concerning the proposed organization of the Arbitral Tribunal without the necessity of a protocol and its scope and powers.

I desire to express my doubts about the results of an arbitral tribunal formed in such a way that the Ecuadorean Government can be practically sure of escaping any unpleasant obligations.

I have [etc.]

Montgomery Schuyler, Jr.
[Inclosure—translation.]

The Minister for Foreign Affairs to the American Minister.

No. 473.]
Ministry for Foreign Relations,
Quito, September 12, 1913.

Mr. Minister: On the 14th of August last, your excellency was kind enough to address to me a note asking me to confirm what our Minister Plenipotentiary in Washington had given to the Secretary of State of the United States, in the conference held between those two officials on the 8th of the same month, concerning the Tribunal of Arbitration which is to concern itself with the settlement of the difficulties which have arisen between the Government of Ecuador and the Guayaquil & Quito Railway Company.

As, on one hand, in order to reply to your excellency there was necessary to me the detailed report of our Legation in Washington, and, on the other hand, it is the function of the Ministry of the Interior, Section of Public Works, to approve the report of our Minister, as it is a question which has no diplomatic character whatever, I am only today in a position to give a definite reply to your excellency, in the following terms:

The Minister of Ecuador in Washington gave the Department of State, in the above-mentioned conference, the facts, which he immediately confirmed in writing, in this form: [quotes the Minister’s note of August 8; see ante.]

The Minister of Public Works has found no objection to the preceding statements, which are in accordance with the legal prescriptions of the case.

I avail [etc.]

Luis N. Dillon.