Mr. Léger to Mr. Hay.
Washington, March 5, 1904.
Mr. Secretary of State: In the course of the interview you did me the honor to grant me on the 3d instant you were so good as to tell me that the United States had no intention to take advantage of the events now taking place in the Dominican Republic either to annex that Republic or to force a protectorate upon it, or to acquire any part of its territory, Samana in particular.
Thanking you once more for this frank statement, which can assuredly not fail to enhance the confidence that my country and my Government already had in the uprightness of the United States, I will beg leave to lay before you the following articles of the treaty, signed in 1874, by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and to which I had ventured to draw your kind attention during our interview.
Art. 3. The two contracting parties engage to maintain with all their strength, with all their power, the integrity of their respective territories; not to cede, compromise, or alienate in favor of any foreign power neither the whole nor any part of their territories nor any of the adjacent islands forming part thereof.
They also engage not to solicit or accept any foreign annexation or control.
Art. 39. The stipulations of the present treaty relative to commerce, navigation, and extradition will remain in full force and effect for a period of twenty-five years from the date of the day of the exchange of ratifications, but the stipulations relative to the other points therein included shall be obligatory forever.
I embrace, etc.,