File No. 839.00/659a.]
The Acting Secretary of State to Brigadier General Frank McIntyre, Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department, and William T. S. Doyle, Chief of the Division of Latin-American Affairs of the Department of State, Special Commissioners to the Dominican Republic.
Washington, September 24, 1912.
Sirs: In view of the situation in the Dominican Republic, as set forth in the Department’s letter1 to the President of the 19th instant [Page 367] and its enclosure, in the course of a conference yesterday the President gave oral instructions which I was desired to communicate to you in the following sense:
You are appointed Special Commissioners to proceed at your earliest convenience to Santo Domingo City, there to confer with the Legation and the General Receiver of Customs, to make adequate investigation of the whole situation, holding such conferences as may be advisable with officials of the Dominican Government, and to report with your recommendations as to the advisability of presenting the note to the Dominican Government as set forth in the enclosure herewith1 and as to such other measures that you deem appropriate satisfactorily to put an end to the present difficulties.
The President has ordered that you proceed to Santo Domingo on the U. S. S. Prairie, on board of which will be some 750 marines together with a naval officer of appropriate rank. The President also directed that the movements of the Prairie, so far as affecting matters of policy, should be governed by your judgment. At such moment as you deem opportune, subsequent to your arrival at the capital of the Dominican Republic, the President’s instructions are to the effect that the marines aboard the Prairie shall, in pursuance of the provisions of treaty, reestablish and protect Dominican customs houses at the proper points wherever interfered with from any cause.
The Department trusts that your mission may result in a satisfactory solution of the very important problems presented, which is a matter to which the President attaches the highest importance.
I am [etc.]