722.2315/819
The Assistant Secretary of State (Welles) to the Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs (Wilson)
Mr. Wilson: With reference to your memorandum appended hereto,12 Dr. López, during his recent visit to Washington, told me that the Colombian Government was entirely willing that the Ecuadoran claims for territory and for an outlet to the Amazon should be taken up before any final adjustment of the respective claims in the Amazon region on the part of Brazil, Colombia and Peru. He said, however, there were two practical difficulties. One was that the Leticia agreement provided for direct negotiations between Peru and Colombia, which would make it impossible in those negotiations to bring Ecuador into the picture; second, that the Peruvian Government had definitely stated to him that they would not agree to participation by Ecuador in such discussions.
I remarked to Dr. López that it would seem the part of common sense that, when an adjustment of the various claims for territory in the Amazon headwaters region was disposed of, it be disposed of in an equitable and permanent manner, and that I did not see how any satisfactory and permanent solution could be found if Ecuador were completely disregarded. If the latter course were followed, I said it seemed to me that we would once more be confronted on this continent with a question similar to the Tacna-Arica13 and Chaco questions,14 which might at any time create a dangerous outbreak and which, pending such time, would doubtless create in Ecuador a feeling of lasting [Page 466] animosity against the neighboring nations which had prevented her from obtaining consideration for what she would allege were her just rights. Dr. López said that he agreed completely with this point of view and that we here might feel sure that he would do everything possible to prevent the Government of Peru from continuing in the course upon which they had embarked with regard to Ecuador. I understood that he had discussed this matter very much the same way with the President-Elect of Ecuador upon his recent visit to Bogotá.
- Supra.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. i, pp. 720 ff.↩
- See ante, pp. 32 ff.↩