722.2315/1250: Telegram
The Provisional Constitutional President of Ecuador (María Borrero) to President Roosevelt
[Received October 11—9:14 a.m.]
In spite of the generous persistence of Ecuador no agreement has been reached, unfortunately, in the direct arrangements begun in 1933 [Page 231] in Lima and over 2 years ago in Washington, not only as regards a friendly compromise but as regards a formula for judicial solution of the controversy over boundaries which she has sustained with Peru for a century. On the contrary the neighbor country has just declined a reply to the proposal of full arbitration, the final recourse for this solution, and violently broken off the conference, even, thus putting in a serious situation my country’s right and violating the agreements which bind it to the latter. The maintaining of such a delicate difference constitutes an insuperable obstacle to fraternal harmony between the two states, upon which indestructible antecedents make close solidarity obligatory for the benefit of both and the progress of the continent. For this reason, at the moment when, in the midst of universal applause, the labor of mediation for the termination of the long and bloody conflict of the Chaco comes to an end, I have the honor to appeal to Your Excellency, the most noble artificer of that peace, to deign to crown magnificently the civilizing work which you have carried to conclusion with so much brilliancy and glory by intervening in a friendly way in the solution of the century-old conflict which so often and so painfully has brought Ecuador and Peru to the brink of war and has prevented the complete disappearance of territorial disputes in America. I have absolute faith that the Governments which mediated in the Chaco problem will not hesitate to assume this most honorable responsibility by placing under their auspices the continuation of the negotiations and suggesting flexible formulas of fraternal conciliation which may conjure away forever the perilous disagreement. This new and most opportune intervention will win for Your Excellency the imperishable gratitude of my country and of all America and will wreathe the brow of the great country over which you so wisely preside, with the purest and most exemplary glory. In the full assurance that Your Excellency will not refuse this inestimable service to the cause of American peace, I express to you in advance the gratitude of the nation and of myself.
Please accept [etc.]