822.014G/427

The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to President Roosevelt 56

My Dear Mr. President: In submitting its report to the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives with respect to H. R. 5378, “To authorize the President to enter into negotiations with the Republic of Ecuador for the acquisition of the Galápagos Islands”,57 the Department of State affirmed its understanding that you held the opinion “that it would not be in the public interest for the Government of the United States to acquire the Galápagos Islands”. The Secretary of State added, however, as follows:

“That although this Government is not itself interested in acquiring the Islands, any endeavor on the part of any non-American power to purchase or lease the Islands or to use any part of them for a naval, military, air, or even a commercial base under whatever terms would be a matter of immediate and grave concern to this Government”.

No consultation was held with the War and Navy Departments at the time this report was framed, since this Department had understood from communications of the War and Navy Departments received in previous years that the Galápagos Islands were of no considerable positive strategic value to this Government, although admittedly, as stated in the above paragraph, their use or possession by a non-American power might be definitely embarrassing to this Government from a military as well as from a political point of view.

It would appear, however, that due possibly to the great advances which have taken place in military and naval science and to the [Page 634] general world situation, the War Department is now of the opinion that the acquisition by the United States of the Galápagos Islands and as a corollary thereto, of Cocos Island, is desirable, and contemplates so recommending to the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives. There is enclosed in this connection a copy, referred to this Department for comment by the Director of the Budget, of a proposed letter from the Secretary of War to Mr. McReynolds.58 I am unaware of the recommendation which the Navy Department has made or contemplates making in the premises.

It is my understanding that your own views on the future of the Galápagos Islands contemplate the formation of a plan under which there would be established a virtual joint trusteeship of the American republics over the Islands whereby they would be administered as an international wild life reserve by a board of the Pan American Union. While the Islands would, of course, remain nominally under Ecuadoran sovereignty, this sovereignty would be limited, and they would be kept under constant vigilance by an international joint patrol representing the American republics.

It was with this end in view that the Delegation of the United States at the Eighth International Conference of American States at Lima introduced a project for nature protection and wild life preservation, which in slightly modified form was approved by the delegations of the American states as Resolution XXXVIII on December 23, 1938,59 It is my understanding that it is your hope that at some future date the importance of the Committee of Experts to be established as a result of this Resolution may be built up to a point where such an inter-American body could undertake the direct administration of the Galápagos Islands. You will recall that unfortunately the Government of the Republic of Ecuador has been in such a fluid political condition that it was felt impossible before the Conference to approach it with any proposal of the character mentioned above.

May I have your authorization to inform the Secretaries of War and of the Navy that you do not desire those two Departments at this time to recommend the approval of resolutions pending in the Congress providing for the acquisition by the United States of territory belonging to the other American republics?

Faithfully yours,

Sumner Welles
  1. The original of this letter was returned to the Department with the notation: “SW–OK–FDR”.
  2. The text of the bill read: “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States is hereby authorized to enter into negotiations with the Republic of Ecuador for the acquisition of the Galápagos Islands. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.”
  3. Not printed.
  4. Resolution XXXVIII, Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation, Report of the Delegation of the United States of America to the Eighth International Conference of American States, Lima, Peru, December 9–27, 1938 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1941), p. 140.