722.2315/1199: Telegram
The Ecuadoran Minister for Foreign Affairs ( Tobar Donoso ) to the Secretary of State
I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that, since a solution of the territorial controversy between Ecuador and Peru has not yet been reached in accordance with the formula contained in the Protocol of June 21, 1924, the Ecuadoran delegation to the Washington conferences renewed yesterday in a note addressed to the Peruvian delegation the proposal previously made22 of submitting the entire controversy to the juridical arbitration of the President of the United States, and suggested the expediency of signing a protocol which would amplify and complement the one of 1924 in which eventual and partial arbitration was already provided. In again proposing total arbitration my Government desires to give authentic testimony of its unalterable adherence to that eminently juridical means which modern law proclaims as the most efficacious for the solution of international differences and which has acquired singular force by the much praised submission to it of the Paraguayan-Bolivian dispute,23 which precedent has stimulated and strengthened our present decision. Ecuador is fully confident that the sister nation with which unfortunately it has maintained this litigation during a century will not refuse the high and just recourse which we offer it for reaching the solution thereof in a short time. In this way the American horizon will be cleared definitively because there will be dissipated the last [Page 227] grave problem which still hinders the full consolidation of the close and fraternal bonds which unite these countries. I do not hesitate in believing that the step taken by Ecuador will find in the high American spirit of the Government which Your Excellency so worthily represents, the fullest acceptance (acogida).
Respectfully,