File No. 838.516/49.
Minister Blanchard to the Secretary of State .
Port au Prince , January 12, 1915 .
Your January 4, noon. Communicated with Williams who states that no threats had been made against him or any employee of the Bank. The only threats made were directed against Desrue, French, director of the Bank, immediately after the taking of the gold. On his complaint, along with the French Minister, I at once called upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs and demanded that he be protected. The Minister although insisting that Desrue was a Frenchman and the Bank a French company in which the stockholders if American were anonymous, courteously accepted my intervention in the light of good offices. He gave us the most formal assurances that Desrue would have full protection adding however that as to his legal liability justice would follow its course. The French Minister is using all his influence to prevent provisional arrest and so far the case is still pending.