File No. 768.72111/1267
The Minister in Ecuador (Hartman) to the Secretary of State
Quito, November 26, 1914.
[Received December 26.]
No. 84]
Sir: Referring to the Department’s telegrams dated November 14, 1914, 7 p.m.,1 and November 16, 1914, 6 p.m.,2 relating to complaints of British and French Governments as to violation of neutrality by Ecuador, and to my telegram of November 19, 1914, 10 a.m.,3 in answer thereto, I have the honor to make the following report:
Immediately upon receipt of the Department’s November 14, 7 p.m., I sent a confidential telegram to our Vice Consul General at Guayaquil informing him of the substance of the Department’s telegram, and requesting him to investigate in Guayaquil, Bahia, and Esmeraldas, to use the code and observe the utmost caution, and to report by telegraph.
I considered it prudent to await an answer from the Consul General, and to have an interview with Mr. Jerome, the British Chargé d’Affaires, before calling on the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I had an interview with Mr. Jerome on November 17, and at that time he expressed it as the opinion of himself and the French Minister that the Ecuadorian Government had done and is doing all in its power to enforce the proclamation of neutrality. Since that interview I have learned from Mr. Jerome that information has been received by him tending to change that opinion somewhat. It appears that the wireless station at Guayaquil had been used by the German Consul in person, and Mr. Jerome says that very conflicting statements have been made to him and the French Minister in relation thereto, which make him very suspicious that it was done with the knowledge of the Government.
On November 18, I brought the matter informally to the attention of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, but in the meantime I had received the Department’s telegram of November 16, 6 p.m., and an answer from the Vice Consul General to the telegram sent to him as above stated. In view of the fact that the morning newspaper El Comercio of November 18 contained a lurid and delirious article on the subject, doubtless based upon the newspaper misrepresentations originating in the United States, I regard it as extremely fortunate that I had not presented the subject to the Foreign Office until the Department’s second telegram on the subject was received. The gist of what was said between the Minister and myself at that interview appears in a statement (duplicate copies enclosed) which I prepared immediately afterward, and which was published in Spanish in El Día on the morning of the 19th in connection with a similar statement by the Minister, which was a substantial corroboration of mine.
The publication of these two statements resulted in a very decided modification in the tone of the comments of the various newspapers, and elicited two articles in El Día which were almost commendatory.
I am ordinarily opposed to rushing into print with these official questions, but I felt, and still feel that, in this case, it was the proper and expedient thing to do.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
Statement of the American Minister published in “El Día” November 19, 1914
I have received information by cable from my Government to the effect that the British and French Governments had complained that the Galápagos Islands had been used by the Germans during the present war as a naval base, and that the United States Government had been requested to use its moral influence to prevent the violation of neutrality by her sister Republic of Ecuador. I was instructed to inquire as to the facts, and report to Washington, and to assure the Government that my Government has no thought of attempting to control the action of other governments and that the British and French Governments have made no such requests. On the contrary they only asked our moral influence; and that our inquiries and attitude in the matter were of the most friendly character. In full compliance with those instructions, I presented the matter this afternoon to his excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who received my inquiry and message in the same friendly spirit in which it was tendered. The answer of his excellency to my inquiry was open and frank and indicated the purpose of the Ecuadorian Government to do all in its power to maintain perfect neutrality in the existing European war.