822.24/165: Telegram
The Minister in Ecuador (Long) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 28—2:45 a.m.]
158. My 153, February 25, 9 p.m. The Minister of National Defense today informed Colonel Montesinos and Major Renshaw that work might proceed without interruption on Galápagos Islands but that he will not sign an agreement until some clarification had been arranged regarding equipment to be received under the Lease-Lend basic agreement.22
President Arroyo later confirmed this to me saying that Alfaro’s airmail letter due today might clear up the matter. He added that as we prepared ourselves for the war and his people learned what was going on at Salinas it naturally stimulated a desire for them also to make preparations which was impossible without constructive help from us. Montesinos is returning to Panama tomorrow and will inform General Andrews.
- For draft text of basic agreement, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. vi, p. 139.↩