Office of the Historian

722.2315/1035: Telegram

The Minister in Ecuador (Gonzalez) to the Secretary of State

Quito, April 17, 1937—7 p.m.
[Received April 18—1:14 a.m.]

22. The President has expressed the earnest hope that the Department may be able to take some action in the present impasse in the boundary negotiations. He is convinced that without such action the negotiations will fail and that a situation then will develop which will threaten peace in South America.

The President is of the opinion that the United States has a moral obligation to lend its influence at this time because as a result of statements of Mr. Fletcher2 to the Ecuadorean Minister in 1922 negotiations were not initiated and the consequent delay has prejudiced Ecuador’s position. The Ecuadorean Ambassador has been instructed to bring these points to the attention of President Roosevelt.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs informs me that this morning he inquired of Mello Franco3 of Brazil whether he would be willing to serve as an observer at the negotiations. The Minister is also making inquiries whether he would be acceptable to Peru.

Full report by air mail leaving tomorrow.4

Gonzalez
  1. Henry P. Fletcher, Under Secretary of State, 1921–22.↩
  2. Afranio de Mello Franco, ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs, of Brazil.↩
  3. Despatch No. 748, April 17, not printed.↩