File No. 422.11G93/770.
The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Hartman.
Washington, April 2, 1915.
Sir: On April 3, 1914,2 the Legation at Quito was instructed to present to the Foreign Office of Ecuador a protest against any operation of the contract of the J. G. White Company for the sanitation of Guayaquil which would infringe on the prior claim of the Guayaquil & Quito Railroad Company to certain defined revenues of the Republic of Ecuador.
The Guayaquil & Quito Railroad Company have again addressed the Department submitting that they are informed that the “Chief Executive has been authorized to apply as much as 40 per cent of all the Government income to the payment of debts in current accounts with the banks of the country, and to use for the same purpose up to 60 per cent of the funds provided for public credit and public works”, and that such a disbursement of the Government’s income could not be carried out without infringing upon those contractual duties which the Government has with the Guayaquil & Quito Railroad Company. You will bring this renewed protest of the Guayaquil & Quito Railroad to the attention of the Foreign Office of Ecuador.