Office of the Historian

722.2315/1142a: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Ecuador (Long)20

Washington, June 4, 1938—2 p.m.

29. Please seek an immediate audience with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and discuss with him the recent border incident.21

You should state that as the host to the delegations from Ecuador and Peru at present in Washington in an endeavor to arrive at an amicable settlement of the long-standing boundary dispute, this Government naturally has followed with the greatest interest the course of their negotiations and has endeavored to facilitate them in every appropriate way. Therefore this Government could not but be preoccupied by any occurrence that places new difficulties in the way of the peaceful solution of the problem which it knows is so earnestly desired by each of the two countries. The course which developments in the present incident is taking appears to give ground for concern. However, this Government, without in any way expressing any opinion with regard to the origin or cause of the incident, is confident that just as the border incidents occurring in the past have all been satisfactorily adjusted by the two countries, so the two Governments will again display the same statesmanship and vision in speedily adjusting the present difficulty in order that the progress recently achieved by the two countries in their negotiations may continue uninterrupted to the successful outcome that is the hope of all.

Welles
  1. The same telegram, June 4, 2 p.m., to the Ambassador in Peru as No. 24.↩
  2. An Ecuadoran officer and two soldiers and later two more Ecuadoran soldiers were seized near the border by Peruvian troops. Following this, both sides reinforced their border outposts. (722.2315/1137)↩