File No. 830.51/1266.
Minister Sullivan to the Secretary of State.
Santo Domingo, March 15, 1914, 10 p.m.
Your March 14, 8 p.m. Minister of Finance, Saviñon, agrees to pledge alcohol and tobacco taxes but believes collection of same should not be surrendered at this time to the Receivership. He believes two radical governmental innovations should not be looked for at one time and that the country should digest financial expert proposition before Receivership assume control internal reorganization. He gave me to understand that he believed in said control ultimately but not now and urged that Department stand by original program for control by Receivership on failure to make payments. The money is needed at once. The news, carefully spread, that Washington would finance Provisional Government has had most salutary effect. Tobacco tax is really a stamp tax which includes tobacco.