File No. 422.11G93/954
My note No. 266, of March 12, 1918, to the Foreign Office;
Note No. 4, of March 12, 1918, from the Foreign Office to this
Legation;
Translation of said note No. 4. …
[Enclosure 1]
The American Minister (
Hartman
) to the Ecuadoran Minister of Foreign Affairs
(
Tobar y Borgoño
)
No. 266
Quito
,
March 12, 1918
.
Mr. Minister: It is with great
surprise and deep disappointment that I have the honor
respectfully to bring to the attention of your excellency the
following matter:
- 1.
- In the issue of the Bolotin del
Ministcrio de Relaciones Exteriores, 4th
series, Nos. 39 to 46, May to December 1917, pages
1640–59, there are published certain notes constituting
official correspondence between your excellency’s
Ministry and this Legation, relating to questions
pending and in process of diplomatic negotiation between
us.
- 2.
- In the issue of the same publication, 5th series, No.
47, for January 1918, pages 1788–96, appears the
publication of certain official correspondence between
your excellency’s Ministry and this Legation, in
relation to important diplomatic questions in course of
negotiation between our respective Governments.
- 3.
- In the newspaper El Comercio,
of this morning, a purported Spanish translation of my
note No. 254, of November 30, 1917, to your excellency,
regarding an important subject pending, and in course of
diplomatic negotiation between our respective
Governments, was published in full, and a memorandum
appears beneath it stating that the answer to that note
will be published to-morrow.
I need not inform your excellency that the publication of the
notes of this Legation, above mentioned, was made without my
authority or consent, and I respectfully but most earnestly
protest against such a proceeding, as it is not only contrary to
diplomatic usage, but it is in direct contravention of the
established and accepted principle agreed to and existing
between your excellency’s Ministry and the several Legations in
Quito.
[Page 408]
Furthermore, I have the honor earnestly to request that in the
future ho official correspondence between your excellency’s
Ministry and this Legation shall be published unless the consent
of the Legation be first obtained.
I avail [etc.]
[Enclosure 2—Translation]
The Ecuadoran Minister of Foreign Affairs
(
Tobar y Borgoño
) to the American Minister (
Hartman
)
No. 4
Quito
,
March 12, 1918
.
Mr. Minister: I take note of your
excellency’s communication, No. 266, of to-day’s date, in which
you complain of the publication, in the Bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Nos. 39
to 46, and 47, of certain communications exchanged between your
excellency’s Legation and this Ministry.
In reply, I may state to your excellency that those notes, which
have not been of a confidential character, have been published
in the official organ of this Ministry as many others of the
same nature have been. Had a different class of matters,
delicate and serious, been concerned, this Ministry, which has
sufficient good judgment to respect diplomatic reserve, and
which does respect it with the foremost, would not, as I have on
several occasions stated to your excellency, have consented to
their being given to the press without previously obtaining your
excellency’s permission; but your excellency, who said nothing
when in the same official organ there appeared the notes
relating to the difficulties that had arisen in Manabí
respecting the Price estate, now finds it strange that routine
notes such as those, and of no more importance, should have been
published.
The notes referred to have been sent to press for the same reason
that, in all the countries of the world, those communications
that tend to create jurisprudence are published. In the latest
notes a juridical point was discussed, with respect to which the
Ecuadoran Government was obliged to determine the doctrine in
its proper aspect; that is to say, establish what must be
understood by a denial of justice; and that was the object this
Ministry had in view when it consented to their being given to
the press.
There is hence no breach of faith in the particular case in
point; and I hold that routine notes such as those mentioned,
and others contained in the Bulletin, are
not of that special importance that calls for consultation prior
to being published. Furthermore, communications relating to
matters of law pertaining to private parties in connection with
the Southern Railway, that can not be of diplomatic political
interest, have always been published, before now, without any
objections on the part of the American Legation; (in proof of
which) it is sufficient for me to refer to the Memorials (Annual
Reports) of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of these past
years, and those of the Ministry of Public Works, in which have
been published documents, notes, etc., of greater importance
than those which have occasioned your excellency’s
communication.
It is a great misfortune that it should always be the Guayaquil
& Quito Railway Co., or that which relates thereto, that
occasionally gives rise to a disparity of views as between the
Legation your excellency is worthily in charge of and this
Ministry; but, in the present instance, I must state that I find
the complaints groundless, the matters being such as can never
be of political interest, properly so called, and therefore
their publication will not interfere with, or even lessen, the
good relations which happily are maintained by your excellency’s
country and mine.
El Comercio of this morning has done
nothing more than to reproduce the note published in the Bulletin; and your excellency will agree
with me that the fact of its reproduction is a very small matter
in this affair.
I repeat to your excellency my previous promise that, when really
diplomatic matters are concerned, this Ministry, a fulfiller of
its duties, will never publish the correspondence exchanged.
Possibly in the present instance there is only a difference of
opinion with respect to the character of the notes; which
opinion, so far as the Ministry of Foreign Relations is
concerned, is hereby corroborated; that is to say, it believes
that the subject matter of the said notes lacks any
international political character which would call for
reserve.
I avail [etc.]
