711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/141
The Ecuadoran Minister for Foreign Affairs (Larrea) to the American Minister in Ecuador (Gonzalez)59
Mr. Minister: Your Excellency has been good enough, acting under express instructions of your Government, to inform me of the important statement which the Secretary of State of the United States of America, the Honorable Cordell Hull, has made with respect to the international political situation, disturbed in various parts of the world.
At the same time, Your Excellency has informed me of the desire to know the opinion of the Government of Ecuador and particularly of this Foreign Office with regard to the ideas of the Honorable the American Secretary of State and with respect to the principles by which Ecuadorean foreign policy is governed and its desires and aspirations along these ideas.
When I was in charge of the Foreign Office in 1932 I made the following observations in the report which I submitted to the Nation:
“One of the facts emphasized by the great conflict which bathed the world in blood during the years 1914 to 1918, was the unity of interests of all the civilized people of the earth, the interdependence of nations and the impossibility of a state’s eluding the consequences which a great political disturbance causes among the others.
“Regardless how much a country may be developed in all of the endeavors of civilization; however great may be its sources of wealth, the variety of its products and the possibilities of independent life, it shall always have multiple points of contact with other peoples and in its economic, if not in its political life it shall depend upon others and shall have many needs of them. Moreover, the larger and more civilized a nation may be the greater are the ties with which it is bound to the others, and the more numerous the common problems and the more complex its relations.
“The disturbance of international peace in any place whatsoever of the world threatens the peace of the whole world. Evolution in the social and political conditions of a people is reflected in those which are united to it by whatever bond; and the prosperity or the economic difficulties of one are soon felt also in the others.
“There are many confused questions which are agitating distant parts of the world and which can be the forerunners of new tragedies which may have an enormous repercussion.”
These same ideas have just been masterly expounded by the Honorable Mr. Hull. It is indubitable that disturbances and tensions which seemingly affect only neighboring countries must interest the entire world, since from that situation there can come the spark which later may be converted into a conflagration threatening the peace of many peoples and influencing in one way or another their policy and their economy.
Therefore, the nations, large or small, cannot ignore the international problems of other countries, and less can they be indifferent when problems which can easily be converted into conflicts arise in their own continent.
Ecuador, essentially a peaceable country and respectful of law, cannot but applaud with enthusiasm the important statements of the Honorable the Secretary of State of the United States.
Ecuador believes that the maintenance of peace is indispensable so that civilization shall not retrograde. Ecuador maintains that only the enforcement of justice in the relations between peoples, only equality among nations and respect for their independence, whether they are powerful or weak, can remove from the world the terrible menace of war.
Ecuador proclaims that the only means of solving the international problems must be the application of law and that the procedure must always be sought in friendly negotiations and in pacific agreements. Therefore, it rejects the use of force as an instrument of international policy; it disavows any territorial acquisitions, any expansion or advantage obtained through violence, and denies any juridical effect of sovereignty through the occupation of territories under dispute.
The Ecuadorean Nation declares that it considers it a duty to respect the political, social and economic organization of other nations, and denies the right that any state may desire to attribute to itself to intervene in the constitutional structure of another, in its internal problems or in its domestic conflicts. But it believes that friendly collaboration and cooperation for mutual progress must be encouraged by all means; and it is entirely in accord in this connection with the policy enunciated by the eminent statesman Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt who in reiterated statements removed old fears and who has contributed so much to strengthen the relations between the Ibero-American republics and the United States.
Ecuador makes public its unqualified respect for international treaties and agreements upon the sincere fulfillment of which it believes depends in great part the consolidation of peace.
The Ecuadorean Government considers the encouragement of commercial interchange as a more efficacious means of strengthening the [Page 732] friendly relations between peoples; and for that purpose it believes in the expediency of suppressing or diminishing the barriers to free importation and exportation of products, aspiring for effective equality of treatment, for the extension (multiplicación) of agreements which facilitate trade and serve as a stimulus for the development of the wealth and prosperity of each country.
These are, Mr. Minister, and have always been the principal postulates of Ecuadorean foreign policy. Anything which may contribute to the maintenance of peace, to these principles’ taking root in the consciences of peoples, to the proscription of injustice, violence, disorder and anarchy, will find enthusiastic reception in Ecuador.
I reiterate, therefore, my applause of the luminous statements of the Honorable the American Secretary of State and I make fervent wishes that such a wise policy may always obtain in our continent and in the entire world.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in his despatch No. 854, July 31; received August 9.↩