Statement on the President's Agreement to Arbitrate the Peru-Ecuador Boundary Dispute.

The Ambassador of Peru and the Minister of Ecuador have called upon me by instruction of their respective Governments to request, in accordance with the terms of the Ponce-Castro Protocol concluded between Peru and Ecuador on June 30, 1924, that this Government give its consent to the sending of delegations from Ecuador and Peru to Washington to discuss the adjustment of their common frontier. The Protocol provides that should the delegations be unable through direct negotiations to fix a definitive line, they will determine by common consent those zones the sovereignty over which is reciprocally recognized, as well as a zone to be submitted to the arbitral decision of the President of the United States.

It has been a source of intimate satisfaction to me to consent to the request made by the Governments of these great Republics, who have thus given most convincing and encouraging evidence of their determination to settle their long-standing boundary controversy through friendly discussion and in accordance with the most enlightened principles of international practice. Their decision should be a matter of encouragement to the Governments and the peoples of the entire continent.

In this connection it is heartening to recall that the Governments of Colombia and Peru are likewise undertaking to settle the controversy involving their common frontier through friendly negotiations being held at Rio de Janeiro.

The outstanding achievement of the Montevideo Conference was its unanimous work in strengthening the inter-American machinery for the peaceful adjustment of controversies which might arise among the American States. No Nations of the world have more effective means at their disposal for the peaceful solution of disputes than the Republics of this hemisphere. It would be a cause of the greatest rejoicing to friends of peace throughout the world if the armed contest resulting from a disagreement over frontiers in the Chaco, which is still continuing, would likewise yield to peaceful methods of adjustment. A continued resort to war, in view of the manifold agencies of peace which are available, would be a blot upon the civilization of this continent.

I am greatly encouraged that the Governments of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru give this convincing demonstration that they share our belief that such boundary disputes are eminently susceptible of pacific and friendly settlement.