822.623/6
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Ecuador ( Gonzalez )
Sir: Referring to your strictly confidential despatch No. 85, dated July 11, 1935 (File No. 862.3—801.45—714), there are transmitted for your information copies of a note received from the British Ambassador in Washington,23 and of the Department’s reply thereto,23a regarding a proposal for the protection for the fauna of the Galápagos Islands. The preliminary legislation by the Ecuadoran Government referred to in the Department’s reply is the Executive Decree of August 31, 1934, (“Poder, Ejecutivo, No. 807 [607], Parte Tercera”23b), which the Department understands was published to establish regulations for the protection of the fauna of the Galápagos Islands.
When a suitable occasion presents itself, you are requested to express informally to the Ecuadoran Minister for Foreign Affairs the sympathetic interest of the Government of the United States in the protection of wild life on this hemisphere, and in the endeavors of private individuals and institutions directed toward securing such protection for the fauna of the Galápagos Islands. You may add that your Government has noted with pleasure that the Ecuadoran Government [Page 524] already has taken action by the publication of the Executive Decree establishing regulations as concerns the fauna of the Galápagos Islands, and that it hopes that this and other measures may result in effective protection for the zoological life which is of so much interest to scientific and conservation agencies throughout the world.
Very truly yours,