File No. 738.3915/188.
The Minister of the Dominican Republic to the Secretary of State.
Washington , January 31, 1913 .
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to send you herewith a copy of the note2 I wrote today to his excellency Sr. Solon Ménos, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Haiti, and of the new draft protocol1 that I have submitted to his attention.
On the assumption that the Haitian Government will cooperate with the Dominican Government in expediting the proceedings necessary to a prompt arbitral decision, the said draft protocol contains a proposition contractually to accept the provisional [boundary] line between the Dominican and Haitian Republics adopted by the Government of the United States of America on September 24 last3 pending a decision of the Arbitral Tribunal as to what the final boundary line is to be. I am complying with my instructions in saying to you that this conditional acquiescence—which is given because the Dominican Government is convinced of the absolute necessity of adopting a frontier if cordiality is to be maintained in the relations of the neighboring peoples, and is satisfied that nothing but a profound desire for peace prompted the Government of the United States to adopt the said line—does not imply a renunciation of the territories in dispute on the part of the Dominican Republic, nor an acknowledgment that it did not possess in January 1911 the [Page 468] parts of its territory indicated in my note hereinbefore referred to, of which it is or seems to be dispossessed by the said provisional line adopted by the United States.
I avail [etc.]
- For. Rel. 1912, p. 368.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Continued from For. Rel. 1912, pp. 380–387.↩