722.2315/819

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs (Wilson)

The Ecuadoran Chargé d’Affaires, Dr. Carbo, came in, having been referred to me by Mr. Phillips.9

He said that he had instructions from his Government to inquire whether, in view of the fact that President-elect Velasco Ibarra, of Ecuador, is now in Lima for a few days, this Government would not send a message to the President of Peru and also to President-elect Velasco Ibarra, expressing the hope that advantage may be taken of Dr. Velasco Ibarra’s presence in Lima to reach an agreement on the “whole question of frontiers in the Amazon valley”. Dr. Carbo said that he believed it was his Government’s idea that the Ecuadoran claims should be dealt with in connection with the diplomatic discussions which he understood would be held between Colombia and Peru regarding a revision of the Salomon–Lozano Treaty10 as a result of the Leticia settlement of last May; however, he said that if this could not be done it would, of course, be helpful if Peru and Ecuador could reach a direct agreement on their frontier.

I recalled that the Ecuadoran Government had sent a commission to Lima, which had been there for some time, to negotiate regarding the frontier matter, and asked what progress had been made. Dr. Carbo said that he felt practically nothing had been accomplished since meetings had been postponed at the request of the Peruvian Government pending a settlement of the Leticia matter, and that Ecuador was encountering some resistance in obtaining a resumption of the meetings now.

I said that we of course wanted to do everything we appropriately could to be helpful in connection with these boundary disputes, provided that both parties desired us to be of such assistance. I reminded him that last February President Roosevelt had made a public statement11 giving his consent to the request made by the Governments of Peru and Ecuador that under the terms of the Ponce Castro Protocol between the two countries of 1924, this Government consent to the sending of delegations from the two countries to Washington to discuss the adjustment of their frontier. I said that the matter was now under negotiation in Lima and that we most sincerely hoped that the two Governments would come to an agreement there. If they failed to do so there was then the possibility that they would come to [Page 465] Washington in accordance with the démarche of last February. I said that it seemed to me that for us to intervene now with a suggestion that President Benavides and President-elect Velasco Ibarra try to reach an agreement on the frontier might cause misunderstanding and resentment and prove to be contraproducente. I asked Dr. Carbo if he did not feel that there was very real risk, if we should take any such action as had been suggested, that it might turn out to have the very opposite effect of what we all desired, namely, a satisfactory solution by mutual agreement of this matter. Dr. Carbo said that he appreciated the force of what I had said, that he agreed that there was this risk of causing misunderstanding and resentment, and that he would report to his Government what I had said.

Edwin C. Wilson
  1. William Phillips, Under Secretary of State.
  2. Signed March 24, 1922, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. lxxiv, p. 9; see also Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. i, pp. 351 ff.
  3. Department of State, Press Releases, February 10, 1934, p. 75.