722.2315/936a
President Roosevelt to the President of Ecuador ( Paez )
My Dear Mr. President: I have had the pleasure of receiving from the hands of your Minister on June first last your letter of May seventh. After reviewing the course of the boundary negotiations which have taken place between Ecuador and Peru during recent years, Your Excellency requests my good offices to the end that the Government of Peru may dispatch duly empowered representatives to this capital, in order that negotiations between the representatives of Peru and Ecuador may be continued in Washington under the auspices of the Government of the United States.
I have given the most careful consideration to your letter, and I desire to express my interest in the information therein contained as well as my deep appreciation of the friendly confidence which Your Excellency’s message demonstrates.
The abiding interest of my Government in the maintenance of peace on the American continent and in the removal of all of the causes for controversies between the American republics which may endanger the preservation of peace between them is well known. I am consequently gratified by the reference Your Excellency makes to the initiative which I took in advocating an inter-American conference to be held in the near future in order to promote those high ideals.
As you have pointed out, I had the honor, on February 12, 1934, of acceding to the request made jointly by the Governments of Ecuador and of Peru that I agree, in accordance with the first article of the Ponce-Castro Oyanguren Protocol of 1924, to the dispatch by the Governments of Ecuador and of Peru to Washington of their respective delegations in order that such delegations might “discuss amicably the question of frontiers, to the end that, if they are not successful in defining a definite line, they are to determine in common agreement the zones which are to be recognized reciprocally by each of the parties and the zone to be submitted to the arbitral decision of the President of the United States.”
It is, of course, the desire of this Government that the representatives of the American republics, when they assemble at the approaching Inter-American Conference, may gather together under the most [Page 113] favorable possible auspices. Accordingly, it would necessarily be my sincere wish that all existing controversies which threaten to disturb or mar the friendly relations between the several republics may already have been submitted to the processes of peaceful adjudication before the Conference takes place. But I feel confident that Your Excellency will recognize that the arbitrator of an international dispute, if he is to carry out his high duties with the complete impartiality which his position demands, must refrain from taking any action which would appear to imply the bringing of any pressure, even in the form of moral influence, upon either of the parties to the dispute. If, under the conditions attendant upon my acceptance of the duties which I have been requested to undertake by the Governments of Ecuador and Peru, I were now to take any action, even action in the nature of a friendly and informal request, which might be construed by the Government of Peru as being beyond the limits of complete judicial impartiality, the confidence of the Peruvian Government in the arbitrator might be shaken, and as a result that speedy and equitable solution of the controversy so earnestly desired by the Government of Ecuador might be prejudiced or delayed.
While it is, therefore, to my regret, impossible for me to comply specifically with the request made of me, you may nevertheless rest assured that my Government will not fail to take every appropriate step which can be taken consistently with the responsibilities which I have assumed, in order to further the cause of peace on the American continent, and in particular the final adjudication of the boundary controversy between the Governments of Ecuador and Peru in a manner satisfactory and just to both parties to the dispute.
I ask Your Excellency [etc.]