722.2315/2445: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Peru (Norweb)
416. Your 554, October 17, 6 p.m.,36 and despatch no. 1979 of October 15. The Department does not believe it would be advisable to interject any new proposals into the mediation at this time. However it perceives no objection to your conducting informal exploratory conversations with regard to the possibility of a definitive settlement on the approximate basis of the 1936 status quo line. It feels that these informal exploratory talks should be confined for the time being to those you have in Lima and not be extended to Quito.
As you were informed in the Department’s 408 of October 20, 2 p.m.,36 Benavides is reported to have informed the Argentine Foreign Minister that the Peruvian Government is devising a formula for settlement which will soon be submitted to the representatives of the three mediatory powers at Lima. Conceivably, in the light of the statements made by Bellido to Butler on October 14, this formula may contemplate the initiation of direct negotiations between the Peruvian and Ecuadoran Governments for agreement on a definitive boundary approximating the status quo line of 1936.
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