File No. 422.11 G93/543.]

The Acting Secretary of State to the American Chargé d’Affaires.

[Telegram.—Paraphrase.]

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.
  1. Not printed.