722.2315/1382: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Brazil (Burdett)

56. From the Under Secretary. The Ambassador of Ecuador today gave me a message from the Foreign Minister of Ecuador which confirms, but in greater detail, the message transmitted to you in the Department’s telegram number 49, February 4, 6 p.m. Dr. Tobar expresses very definitely the view that a personal meeting between him and the Peruvian Foreign Minister would be desirable, provided it could be predicated upon the preparation prior to such meeting of some general formula of solution prepared by some third friendly power.

It seems desirable for you to bring this question again to the attention of Dr. Aranha and inquire whether it does not seem to him that the time has come when he might be able usefully to arrange for the proposed meeting in some Brazilian city in the near future.

Please tell him further for his personal and confidential information that I have received today a message from the Chilean Foreign Minister, who has just been in Lima, expressing profound disquiet with regard to the boundary controversy between Peru and Ecuador and the [Page 216] possibilities for serious trouble which this situation holds for the entire continent.

Granted the apparently favorable attitude of both the Peruvian and Ecuadoran Foreign Ministers with regard to a meeting between the two of them, it would seem to me that the opportunity should be availed of unless Dr. Aranha has reason to believe that further extensive preparatory work is required.

Please telegraph me his views.11a [Welles.]

Hull
  1. In telegram No. 82, February 7, 1941, 4 p.m., from Rio de Janeiro, it was reported that the Brazilian Foreign Ministry proposed to facilitate a meeting between the Peruvian and Ecuadoran Foreign Ministers by making available the Brazilian naval training ship Saldanha Dagama, then en route to Pacific Coast ports (722.2315/1403).