Mr. Douglass to Mr. Blaine.
Port-au-Prince, May 28, 1890. (Received June 10.)
Sir: Late in the afternoon of the 22d instant Mr. Sultzer Wart, a Swiss banker or merchant who has resided in Port-au-Prince since 1874, called at my house to inform me that he had just then received a verbal order from the Government of Haiti to leave the country within 24 hours.
By reason of instruction which I find in the legation concerning the protection of Swiss citizens in Haiti, I felt that Mr. Sultzer Wart was entitled to the benefit of my good offices.
I accordingly interested myself in his behalf. I went immediately to the minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Firmin, to learn the nature of the charge against Mr. Sultzer Wart and the proofs on which they rested, and to secure, if possible, the recall of the verbal order expelling him, [Page 526] or, if that could not be done, to obtain a delay in its enforcement which would permit him to arrange his personal and business affairs.
I found Mr. Firmin, as usual, cordial in manner and willing to listen to me. He said that the charge was that Mr. Sultzer Wart was conspiring against the stability of the Government, and that there were ample proofs to sustain the charge.
Mr. Firmin was inflexible as to the carrying out of the order of expulsion, but, in deference to my wishes, he consented to grant an extension of a few days in order that Mr. Sultzer Wart might close up his affairs.
Mr. Sultzer Wart went this morning quietly on board a German steamer, which will leave him at Colon. There were embarked on the same steamer two other persons who had each received from the Government a written order of expulsion, one of them being Dr. Robert Love, a British subject, and the other, Gen. François Manigat, who was for several years minister of the interior under the Salomon administration, and who is spoken of in my predecessor’s dispatches Nos. 185 and 186 of June 6 and 11, 1888.
I am, etc.,