File No. 838.516/27.
The Secretary of State to the Minister of Haiti.
Washington, December 31, 1914.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 22d instant in continuation of your interview with me on that date relative to the withdrawal of certain funds from the Banque Nationale de la Republique d’Haiti by the officers of that institution, which, it has been ascertained, is a private bank.
In reply I have the honor to recall to your attention that the gold in question lying in the vault at Port au Prince—between $900,000 and $1,000,000—had been deposited in that bank under the loan agreement of 1910 for use in retiring the existing paper money and the nickel in circulation in Haiti. The Department is advised that the revolutionary authorities then in control of the Government’ made several attempts to have the gold at Port au Prince placed in their hands for purposes other than those provided for in the agreement with the bondholders who furnished the gold. Upon the refusal of the bank to take these steps conditions became such that the safety of the gold was precarious. The officials of the bank therefore deemed it advisable to have some of this gold transferred to a place of safety, and as it was not drawing interest, to a place where it might draw interest pending its use for the retirement of the Haitian currency. As there were no merchant vessels suitable or available for carrying the gold to the United States the officers of the bank made application to this Government for the use of the gunboat Machias, which was then on its way to the United States, to take $500,000 of the amount in the vaults of the bank at Port au Prince to New York. On the 17th instant, as a protective measure merely, in behalf of American interests which were gravely menaced, the Machias took on board, under an escort of unarmed marines, and conveyed to the United States, the before-mentioned $500,000.
It is hardly necessary to state that if it had happened that the gold had been taken from the bank by revolutionary authorities, or by irresponsible rioters, the bank, through its negligence to place the gold in safety, might have become liable later on to some duly established government of Haiti for any losses of the specie in its safe keeping,
[Page 381]This Government is advised that there remains in the vaults of the bank at Port au Prince $400,000 in gold which will be applied to the retirement of the currency when the conditions in Haiti render the resumption of this procedure advisable. The $500,000 brought to New York and deposited there at interest will be also available when required for the same purpose.
The facts as herein recounted and as understood by the Department, indicate merely a withdrawal of funds by the authorities of a private bank in Port au Prince from the jurisdiction of Haiti as a measure of precaution for their security and the placing of such funds on board a gunboat of the United States in the absence of other craft for transportation to a place of safety. The Department is at a loss to perceive, therefore, how such circumstances constitute “an arbitrary and offensive intervention which carries a flagrant invasion of the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Haiti,” which you call upon this Government “to disown “and” to order such restitutions and amends as may be necessary.” Furthermore, it is not clear to the Department upon what practical ground your Government bases its objection to the withdrawal of the $500,000; for if it is the desire of your Government to have the retirement of the currency resumed, there are, so the Department is advised, now on deposit at Port au Prince $400,000 ready for that purpose; or, on the other hand, if your Government has no intention of continuing the retirement at the present time, the placing of a portion of the funds in a position to draw interest during the period of suspension would seem to be a wise measure. Such a measure seems the more obvious to the Department in that since the receipt of your note, above referred to, it has received information which it considers reliable, to the effect that a new revolutionary movement has been set on foot in the north of the Republic of Haiti, so that it conceives the steps taken by the bank officials to protect the bank’s gold holdings to have been wholly justifiable.
I should be glad, therefore, to be further informed by your Government as to the reasons for its protest regarding the withdrawal of the $500,000 in gold referred to herein.
Accept [etc.]