of Ecuador in order that the 100,000 dollars [sic] which that Government states it has on hand for the purpose may be immediately paid, obviating any further delay, which can only aggravate the present most unfortunate situation. WILSON. File No. 422.11 G93/471.] The Acting Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Telegraph at once translation of essential portion of note from Foreign Office referred to in your May 14. WILSON. File No. 422.11 G93/476.] The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] AMERICAN LEGATION, Quito, May 18, 1912. Essential portions of note referred to in your May 16, my May 14: I had the honor of pointing out to you, in my note No. 275 of the 6th instant (1), that the official intervention of your Government in these affairs seemed to me in every sense unnecessary, since, in the extreme case of not being able to arrive at a friendly settlement between the parties, there remained the arbitration stipulated in the contracts as an unavoidable and sure means of ending the controversy. Then I added that out of special deference to the Chargé d'Affaires of the United States, my Government felt bound to set to work to procure the means of giving to the company the help requested, while denying în principle, the strict obligation to do so. Consistently with that idea I declare to you, respecting the definite settlement of the company's claim, that the documents it has submitted as the basis for its claim to the payment of evidently excessive amounts for services rendered and damages sustained during the late revolution, have not yet been accepted by my Government, and much less has the latter recognized a debt to the company of nearly 375,900 sucres in promissory notes viséed by employees of my Government having authorization therefor. The examination of the aforesaid documents belongs solely to the Minister of Public Works, in whose Department the following obstacles have been encountered that the company claims the indisputable approval and acceptance of all the accounts presented in previous years by the Director of Public Works; and that among the employees mentioned, there is not one in Quito who has the Company's authority to accept, in private conferences and in a definite manner, the just observations which there is room to make respecting the whole of the account, the extent of which in itself calls for serious examination. With the earnest desire to end the whole controversy by means of a private agreement with the Company, and in order to avoid the presentation of fresh difficulties when the time comes to carry out the determined conditions of a later liquidation, my Government resolves today to offer officially to the Company the sum of 280,000 sucres for services rendered and damages sustained by the railway during the late revolution, as the net balance, and after deducting the value of the combustibles supplied by the Government and the amount of the items justly objected to in the account for the damages caused to the railway. There are included in this amount of 280,000 sucres the equitable average of the receipts of the railway during a period of time immediately preceding the revolution, the 50% and the value of the damages. If the company accepts the offer, it may draw immediately for 86,000 sucres and receive a draft at ninety days sight for 14,000 sucres, the balance of the 280,000 sucres to be paid at the rate of 50,000 sucres monthly, until the total amount is cancelled. But if the company does not accept the proposal, my Government reserves the right to await the result of the arbitration respecting each and all of the company's charges and their total, that is to say: respecting the whole sum of 375,900 sucres which according to your statements the Company claims. Notwithstanding this, and with the aforesaid reservation, my Government, with a view to make good the offer contained in my note of the 6th instant, will give to the company the 100,000 sucres, as the aid requested by it, and in the form above stated. With reference to the previous bills, the greater part of which belong to the administration of President General Eloy Alfaro, which are at present deferred and which the company claims should be accepted in an indisputable manner, my Government, for that very reason, has resolved to examine them carefully, after which, in a short while, the company will be advised of the result; I, meanwhile, am bound to declare to you today that said accounts are not lacking in really incorrect items. BINGHAM. File No. 422.11 G93/476.] The Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 22, 1912. Inform the Government of Ecuador that the offer contained in the note of the Foreign Office to compromise revolutionary bills and claims for 280,000 sucres is entirely unacceptable and must be rejected. You will thereupon refer to the alternative proposal of immediate payment of 100,000 sucres, with subsequent arbitration of all outstanding claims and questions between the railway company and the Government of Ecuador, and formally transmit the acceptance by the railway company of this proposal. You will then make it clear that this Government awaits your report of the immediate payment of the 100,000 sucres in the form stated in the note of the Foreign Office, and add that the railway company desires to proceed immediately to the constitution of an arbitral tribunal. KNOX. File No. 422.11 G93/477.] The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] AMERICAN LEGATION, Quito, May 24, 1912. The Government of Ecuador has made a formal request for the appointment by the United States of an arbitrator. BINGHAM. File No. 422.11 G93/477.] The Acting Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 27, 1912. Has payment of the 100,000 sucres been made to the railway company? WILSON. File No. 422.11 G93/480.] The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. [Telegram.--Paraphrase.] AMERICAN LEGATION, Railway company controller now has draft of Minister of Hacienda for 57,230 sucres. The Minister has instructed Amsinck to pay railway company through Consul General, New York, 28,770 Controller has draft on said Consul General 14,000 sucres. sucres. Total, 100,000. BINGHAM. File No. 422.11 G93/539a.] The Acting Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 23, 1912. You will inform the Government of Ecuador that the President is now prepared, as requested, to designate an arbitrator, and that this Government desires to know whether Ecuador has named its arbitrator; and whether action has been taken by Ecuador as to protocol relative to jurisdiction of the tribunal, and as to other pertinent matters submitted by the railway company to Ecuador some time ago, as the Department understands. WILSON. File No. 422.11 G93/543.] The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] AMERICAN LEGATION, The Foreign Office formally states that arbitrator will be appointed as soon as the name of the American arbitrator is made known. The railway protocol will be submitted to the tribunal. BINGHAM. File No. 422.11 G93/543.1 The Acting Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 9, 1912. It appears from your October 28 and other correspondence1 that Ecuador's expression of purpose to submit the railway protocol to the discussion of the tribunal shows an intention to provoke a reconsideration of matters already the subject of arbitral decision. You will textually communicate the following to the Government of Ecuador, also stating that the President will in the course of a few days appoint his representative on the tribunal: Matters involving the existence and validity of fundamental contractual agreements between the railway company and the Government of Ecuador cannot now be regarded by the Government of the United States as open for discussion. In a former controversy between the Government of Ecuador and the company these matters were discussed and were at that time passed upon and fixed by the arbitral tribunal of 1907-08 in an act equivalent to an arbitral award. Until the present time that act has not been questioned by the Government of Ecuador, but on the contrary has been fully recognized. Therefore the said matters must now be regarded as res judicata and not proper subjects for further controversy. Thus the matters of present dispute have solely to do with transactions between the Government and the railway since September 30, 1908, and the Government of Ecuador will perceive that the proposed arbitration can relate only to such transactions, and that the status as to the fundamental agreement must be accepted as the fundamental basis upon which to ground the determination of the controversy. WILSON. File No. 422.11 G93/545a.] The Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 14, 1912. You will textually communicate the following to the Government of Ecuador, and express the hope that the arbitrator representing that Government will be named without delay: In accordance with Article 27 of the contract of June 14, 1897, and in accordance with the formal request of the Government of Ecuador, the President of the United States, on November 11, 1912, designated Henry L. Janes, of the Diplomatic Service of the United States, as Arbitrator on the arbitral tribunal to be established for the settlement of the differences arising between the Government of Ecuador and the Guayaquil & Quito Railway Company since the date of the last arbitration in 1908. ΚΝΟΧ. Not printed. File No. 422.11 G93/556.1 The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] AMERICAN LEGATION, Quito, December 18, 1912. The President of the Senate, Doctor Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno, has been appointed to represent Ecuador on the arbitral tribunal. BINGHAM SANITATION OF GUAYAQUIL; PROPOSAL BY ECUADOR OF A CONVENTION WITH THE UNITED STATES; VISIT TO GUAYAQUIL OF A UNITED STATES INSPECTION COMMISSION. File No. 822.124/189. The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. No. 56.] AMERICAN LEGATION, SIR: The first occasion on which the present Government of Ecuador seriously discussed the sanitation of Guayaquil with this Legation, was about two weeks ago when I had been to see the Minister for Foreign Affairs about another matter. At this interview Dr. Tobar complained very strongly about the action of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, an English line, in transporting revolutionary soldiers from Esmeraldas and Manabí to Guayaquil during the recent revolution. He went on to say that he desired very much to see an American line of steamers between Guayaquil and Panamá, and that the Ecuadorian Government would assist in every way possible the establishment of such a line. I replied that I was much interested in his excellency's idea, and that possibly after the opening of the Panamá Canal, some arrangement could be made by which American steamships would extend their voyages down the west coast of South America, but I pointed. out that one great objection to the establishment of an American steamship line between Panamá and Guayaquil was the extremely unsanitary condition of the latter city. Another factor which has impressed the present Government with the necessity of taking some action in regard to sanitating Guayaquil, has been the large number of deaths in the Constitutional Army from yellow fever during the recent campaign. The Coignet project for the construction of permanent public works having been approved by the Ecuadorian Congress, I suggested to Dr. Tobar that in order not [to] conflict with this contract a great deal could be done toward the sanitation of Guayaquil by the enforcement of suitable sanitary regulations in that city, and that Colonel Gorgas was the logical man to take charge of this work. The result of these conversations was the receipt of note No. 167 dated February 5, 1912, from the Ecuadorian Foreign Office, copy |