721.23/804
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)
The Ecuadoran Minister called on me and said that his Government had instructed him to take up again the question of Ecuador’s participation in the conference at Rio between Colombia and Peru. He said that the Ecuadoran Government had taken this matter up with Peru and had twice received the definite answer that Peru would welcome Ecuador’s presence. The matter was taken up with Colombia and Colombia also assured Ecuador that Ecuador would be welcomed by her in the conference. The Brazilian Government then, in [Page 566] view of this, was asked to include Ecuador in the conference when it made the proposal to both Governments. Since then there has been difficulty over this matter in Lima; the Peruvian Government, for some reason which is not yet clear to Ecuador, apparently now does not want to include Ecuador in the conference. Ecuador, the Minister said, feels that it is important to have it understood that if there is to be a conference Ecuador should be invited; otherwise, the question of a conference would be agreed on in principle without making any provision for Ecuador and, when the conference was held, Ecuador would be told that there had been no agreement among the parties regarding the inclusion of Ecuador and that therefore Ecuador could not participate. The Minister said that his Government would like our help in this matter.
I told the Minister that I thought the important thing at the moment is that there should be an acceptance by Peru of the Brazilian proposal to turn over the territory first to Brazil and then have Brazil return it to Colombia in order that there may be a conference in Rio. When war is avoided and a conference assured, then would be the time to take up the matter of whether Ecuador shall be a participant or not.
The Minister said that he understood our point of view perfectly but repeated what he said before—that his Government thought it important that Ecuador’s presence at the conference should be definitely agreed upon now, and he hoped that we would take the matter up with Peru on behalf of Ecuador in the sense that we hope that if there is to be a conference Ecuador will be included.
I told the Minister quite frankly that we could not do so. I said that I felt it was necessary for us to reserve all the weight of our influence in trying to bring about peace and avoid war and that to take up any other matters before that important question is determined might only complicate the situation.
I told the Minister that after war is averted and a conference is to be held, then we will examine the situation to see if there is anything we can do along the lines that Ecuador requests. I told the Minister that I could not make any promise as to what we can do because I can not foresee what the situation will be. I said that the Peruvian Government might accept the Brazilian proposal with reluctance, only through the force of world public opinion, and might harbor resentment against this country for joining with the others in bringing about Peru’s acceptance, so that anything we might say, on behalf of Ecuador, would have a distinctly harmful effect and produce just the contrary to what we both wanted. I said that I felt that Ecuador should be represented in this conference in order that the question of the upper Amazon might be settled once and for [Page 567] all and that if there is anything we can properly do to bring this about when the time comes we shall be glad to do so but I did not want to promise definite action because, as I said, the situation at that time might show that that would be the very worst thing we could do on behalf of Ecuador. I said that we will examine the situation when the time comes and do what we properly can.
The Minister also stated that the territory given to Peru by the 1922 Treaty10 along the Sucumbios River was not really wanted by Peru. Peru had taken it merely to be able to give it to Ecuador later in order to help Peru in her boundary dispute with Ecuador. He said that Ecuador was not seeking either to get or to refrain from getting this territory; that its attitude regarding it would be determined entirely by the course and progress of the negotiations.
- The Salomon-Lozano treaty, signed March 24, 1922, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. lxxiv, p. 9; see also Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. i, pp. 351 ff., and ibid., 1925, vol. i, pp. 461 ff.↩