The Curse of Philip V

American statesmen last week had good reason to curse the Kings of Spain for their cavalier treatment of their dependencies. It was not until 1740 that Philip V determined the boundary between his viceroyalties of Santa Fe and of Lima. This is the line which Ecuador now claims as her southern boundary. Peru, claiming a boundary far to the north and west, bases her case on the fact that when her constitution was proclaimed in 1821 three of the four disputed provinces adhered to it.

Inasmuch as innumerable Peruvians and Ecuadorians never got anywhere near settling this dispute, American statesmen last week wisely made no attempt to settle it. But they were interested in nipping the incipient war which had flared along the frontier (TIME, July 14).

In Washington dapper Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles telephoned equally dapper Ambassador Felipe Espil of Argentina and Brazilian Ambassador Carlos Martins. The three went into a huddle, emerged with a stopgap proposal: Peru and Ecuador should each withdraw 15 kilometers (9 1/2 mi.) from their present frontier stations, cease hostilities, submit their dispute once more to Argentine-Brazilian-U.S. mediation.

Dr. Carlos Concha, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Peruvian Senate, and Dr. Homero Viteri Lafronte, onetime Ecuadorian Minister to the U.S. hastened to Washington. During the seven-hour flight from Miami to Washington on the same plane they showed no sign of recognizing each other. In the steaming jungle that neither country really wants Peruvians and Ecuadorians kept on shooting at one another.

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