722.2315/1280: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Brazil (Scotten)
4. I have received today the following report from Duggan who is still in Lima:
[Here follows text of telegram No. 1, January 4, 4 p.m. (except last sentence) from the Ambassador in Peru, printed supra.]
Please communicate the substance of this report to Aranha6 and tell him that I should be grateful for his opinion regarding the situation. My own judgment is that if Dr. Concha is prepared to state to Dr. Mello Franco7 that if within a specified and reasonably short period direct negotiations between Ecuador and Peru for settlement of the controversy should not prove successful, Peru would then be willing to invoke one of the conciliation instruments to which both Ecuador and Peru are parties and which instrument is satisfactory to the Government of Ecuador, an agreement on the part of Peru to accept mediation in the event that direct negotiations prove unsuccessful will to all intents and purposes have been obtained. Before discussing the matter any further with the representatives of Ecuador, however, I should necessarily wish to have Aranha’s own point of view and the benefit of any suggestions which he may be good enough to make.
Please telegraph me the result of your conversation.
- Oswaldo Aranha, Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Afranio de Mello Franco, Chairman of the Brazilian delegation to the Eighth International Conference of American States, Lima, December 9–27, 1938, who had remained in Lima at the request of Mr. Welles to endeavor to obtain an agreement between the Peruvian and Ecuadoran Ministers for Foreign Affairs. See telegram No. 147, December 27, 1938, 1 p.m., to the Chargé in Brazil, Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. v, p. 243.↩