Office of the Historian

822.51/8–2845: Telegram

The Ambassador in Ecuador (Scotten) to the Secretary of State

Quito, August 28, 1945—10 a.m.
[Received 4:16 p.m.]

657. Since his arrival in Quito several days ago, Ambassador Plaza has made several declarations to the press regarding the Galápagos negotiations and the Export Import bank loan. (Although Plaza has not publicly mentioned the size of the loan he has undoubtedly done so privately as the amount of $20,000,000 appears in several of the press articles and this figure appears to be more or less taken for granted.) His declarations have been very tactful, underlining the great benefits Ecuador will derive from the loan and the fact that Ecuador will maintain its sovereignty over the Galápagos Archipelago although granting United States the use of the bases for the defense of the canal. The reaction in Guayaquil and Quito has been on the whole [Page 1019] very favorable, the only discordant note being a resolution of the Communist Party calling for the immediate return of the Galápagos bases to Ecuador. This resolution reported to the Dept in my despatch 3377 of August 24,45 does not however appear to be particularly important especially as it was drafted before the news of the Export Import Bank loan was made public.

I expect to sign the aide-mémoire46 referred to in Depts 528 of August 2547 with the Minister Foreign Affairs48 Thursday morning.49

Galo Plaza informs me he has gone over this whole matter with the President and the entire Cabinet and they have unanimously approved the present status of the negotiations. He adds that the draft treaty itself is being studied in the Foreign Office and he does not anticipate any important objections.

This whole situation is aired in this morning’s press in an Associated Press despatch from Washington and was also mentioned in a radio broadcast of the National Broadcasting Company from Boston.

Scotten
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Not printed. The aide-mémoire provided for the reorganization of the Ecuadoran Development Corporation into a planning commission, the use of an American engineering firm as consultant, and the loan of $1,000,000 for preliminary studies. (822.51/9–445)↩
  3. Not printed. This authorized the signing of the aide-mémoire. ↩
  4. Upon the resignation of Ponce, José Vicente Trujillo became Minister for Foreign Affairs late in July.↩
  5. The signatures were attached on Saturday, September 1, 1945.↩