721.23/1757
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)
The Ecuadoran Minister, Mr. Zaldumbide, called and said that he had received a further telegram from his Government along the lines of the ones which he had recently discussed with me, indicating that his Government felt that now was the time, in view of the negotiations going on in Lima between President Benavides and Señor Lopez of Colombia,11 for this Government to indicate to the Peruvian Government that it felt that Ecuador should be included in the discussions.
I told the Minister that we were disposed, as I have repeatedly told him in the past, to support in any proper way the Ecuadoran aspiration in this matter as soon as the time seems to be appropriate. I told him that I still did not feel that that time had arrived.
I told him that we know nothing of the conversations in Lima nor have we been consulted regarding them. I said that therefore, while we had no intimation officially or otherwise as to what was being discussed in Lima, I presumed that the first thing to be settled by Colombia and Peru would be the means of bringing about the evacuation by Peru of the Leticia territory. There is the question of amour propre and political sensibilities in both countries to be taken into account. This point has been the stumbling block up to now. Once this question is solved, then I presumed arrangements would be made for further negotiations after Peru has evacuated Leticia and this [Page 568] territory has been taken over either by Colombia or by a commission of the League of Nations. When these further negotiations are entered into, then I thought would be the time for Ecuador to come into the picture. Ecuador does not enter the matter of the evacuation of Leticia and it would only complicate the issue for Ecuador to try to get into the negotiations before that matter is solved, and I thought any attempt to do so would only meet with a rebuff.
When that point, however, is settled and the further negotiations are entered into or agreed upon, I thought it would then be possible for this Government informally to advise both Peru and Colombia that we had been apprised by Ecuador of her desire to be heard and to say that the two Governments might wish to include Ecuador in any negotiations for a settlement so that all questions connected with the territory in the upper Amazon and its tributaries might be settled once and for all.
The Minister said that he agreed with me and that he would advise his Government in this sense.