File No. 838.111/127.

The American Minister to the Secretary of State.

No. 1263.]

Sir: I have the honor to report that agreeable to the Department’s cablegram of July 23, I called upon the President of Haiti to ascertain the attitude of his administration relative to the entry into Haiti of persons of Syrian origin. I reported a summary of the interview in my [telegram of] July 25.

The President stated that it would be impossible, at least for the present, to permit persons of Syrian origin, whatever their nationality, to come to Haiti, in that the Exclusion Act of 1903 especially prohibited it. At first he had been inclined to have the law modified, but he now finds that quite a campaign against the present administration is being waged by the Syrians in Kingston, Jamaica, and they are contributing funds for the Haitians who are there and who seek to overthrow his administration.

According to a report of the Haitian Consul at Kingston, two prominent citizens of the United States of Syrian origin went to Kingston [Page 583] and had long conferences with the Haitians; in fact it is reported that the carriage of ex-President Simon was in waiting for them at the steamship wharf upon their arrival and they spent a day with Mr. Simon, at whose house congregate many of the exiles. I tried to ascertain the names of these Americans and the President has promised to give me the information. I called the President’s attention to the fact that the Haitian Consul at Kingston is rather erratic and should not be depended upon; that when Haitian Consul at Monte Cristi he was the chief adviser of the Dominican revolutionist Desiderio Arias and was more a revolutionist than he.

I do not believe that persons of Syrian origin are aiding and abetting the exiles against the present administration and I await with interest the report of our consul there, which the Department in its No. 372 of March 11, 1913, stated it had instructed him to make.1

I told the President that in carrying out the Exclusion Act of 1903 it should not be made to operate against persons of Syrian origin who may desire to come to Haiti, temporarily, in connection with commercial affairs; that I know several Americans of Syrian origin who are commercial travelers and he should construe the law liberally enough to allow such to come to Haiti. I told him that we allowed merchants of Chinese origin to enter the United States on business. He then said that, to be agreeable to this Legation, he would allow American citizens of Syrian origin who represent American commercial houses to come to Haiti provided they remained at most a few months, and further provided that the Department of State or this Legation would vouch for their citizenship and their connection with American commercial houses doing business in Haiti.

I have [etc.]

H. W. Furniss.
  1. Not printed; see the Department’s No. 25 of March 8, ante, to the Vice Consul at Kingston.