File No. 839.00/1154.
Minister Sullivan to the Secretary of State.
Santo Domingo, April 11, 1914, 11 a.m.
Minister for Foreign Affairs asks that you increase at once the amount advanced to at least $5,000 a day. The sum of $2,000 can not maintain the number of men needed to crush out the insurrection, and a long-drawn-out campaign would be undesirable and disastrous to the country. The fixed charges for Government will leave less than $3,000 of the $7,000 for the field, and the Dominican Government fears you underestimate what it will mean if Arias is crushed immediately. Such a result, among other things, would convince the people that there was truth in the promise that revolutions in the future would be futile. Vidal is quiet, but anxious to [Page 225] throw his fortunes on the winning side. Up to the present time Arias has been kept on the run, and his activities are confined to district of Monte Christi, with peace in every other part of the country. A proper campaign against him here can not be maintained for the money allowed.