ECUADOR I0 8 3 



power, there will be forty-three Liberals and forty-eight who are listed as Conservatives. 

 Five of the latter, however, are Liberal " mugwumps " and they will hold the balance of 

 power. The Liberals claimed that fraud was practised during the election campaign, 

 and the Conservatives replied by counter charges. General Menocal, the new President, 

 had been manager of the largest sugar estate in Cuba for many years. In his programme 

 he promised to cultivate closer relations with the United States, and to seek agricultural 

 and industrial development, and at once to open negotiations for a revision of the tariff 

 with the United States. 



ECUADOR 1 



Ecuador has an area of 116,000 square miles, and the population according to the 

 most recent- estimates is 1,500,000, inclusive of some 200,000 Indians only partly 

 civilised, giving an average of 12.8 inhabitants per square mile. Imports were 

 valued at 1,604,821 and exports at 2,733,274 in 1909-10. The revenue and expend- 

 iture were estimated in the budget of. 1912-13 to balance at 1,897,132. The total 

 public debt amounted to 4,180,000 (2,680,000 external and 1,500,000 internal). 

 The total mileage of railways is 350 and that of telegraph lines 2591. The army has 

 a strength of 7,810 men. The navy comprises 7 vessels with a personnel of 200. 



On January i, 1907, General Eloy Alfaro was re-elected president for a further term 

 of 4 years. Under his rule the country made but little progress, numerous revolts and 

 border disputes serving to prevent any advance in its economic or financial conditions. 



The boundary question with Peru, which dated from 1822, became acute in 1908, 

 and numerous frontier encounters occurred between armed bands of both nationalities. 

 International conditions improved somewhat later on, when Senor Federico Elguero, 

 the Peruvian Minister to Ecuador, exerted his influence in favour of peace. In 1909 

 the United States, Brazil and Argentina offered their joint mediation, which was 

 accepted at once by Peru, but refused by Ecuador, as were also the alternative sugges- 

 tions of the arbitration of the King of Spain and a reference to the Hague Tribunal. 



In July 1909 excitement was caused by the publication of some documents found 

 among the private papers of ex-President Garcia, dealing with the sale of Galapagos 

 Island to the United States. It appeared that negotiations had also been opened with 

 France, but had been interrupted owing to the belief that the United States would not 

 consent to the acquisition of the island by a European Power. In January 1911 fresh 

 negotiations were entered into between the United States government and President 

 Estrada, with a view to leasing the island for a term of 99 years in return for the cash 

 payment of $15,000,000 (3,000,000). Again, however, the offer was rejected, upon 

 the grounds that its acceptance would be unpatriotic. 



In September 1909 a financial delegate was sent to Europe for the purpose of arrang- 

 ing a loan of 4,000,000, the proceeds of which were to be used for the reorganisation of 

 the national finances. The negotiations were not successful. Others having for their 

 object the raising of a loan of 2,000,000 were opened in November 1909, but Congress 

 withheld its assent. A few weeks later an English syndicate advanced the government 

 the sum of 250,000, at 85 per cent, taking as security 50 per cent of the customs receipts 

 on exports. The finances of the country continued in a very unsatisfactory condition, 

 and on July 2, 1910, the Government defaulted in regard to the interest due on the 4 per 

 cent salt bonds. In the following September, however, the coupon was met, and pay- 

 ments were continued thereafter with more or less regularity. Arrears of interest were 

 also due upon the Guayaquil-Quito railway bonds. In April 1911 Mr. J. P. Cooper, 

 the Secretary of the Council of Foreign Bondholders (representing the Guayaquil-Quito 

 Railway), had visited the Republic, with a view to settling the claims of the bond- 

 holders upon whose coupons the interest had not been paid for over twelve months. 

 Although President Plaza promised in September to remedy the default, payments 

 remained unsatisfied. They were resumed, however, in October 1912. 

 ; Towards the end of General Alfaro's term of office, political conditions became both 



1 See E. B. vii, 910 et seq. 



