File No. 838.516/80.
Minister Blanchard to
the Secretary of State.
No. 33.]
American Legation,
Port au Prince,
February 6, 1915.
Sir: Referring to the Department’s cable of
January 26, 6 p.m., and my February 1, with reference to the removal of
the funds from the Bank, I have the honor to report that on the 23rd of
January the Foreign Office addressed a note to the Legation, a copy and
translation of which is herewith enclosed, stating that on the 15th of
January Mr. Williams, director ad interim of the Bank, had forwarded a
letter to the juge d’instruction stating that contrary to what Mr.
Desrue had declared there was no longer any portion of the retrait fund
at the Bank, and further that the funds under seal there belonged to the
Bank. In presence of this attitude of the Bank the Haitian Government
had determined that justice should follow its course.
I acknowledged receipt of this note and contented myself with saying that
the matter would be brought to the attention of the Department, as I did
not consider that the Legation should intervene in a difference between
the Haitian Government and its Treasury.
Upon investigation it was ascertained that the director of the Bank, Mr.
Williams, had, as stated on the 15th of January, addressed a letter to
the juge d’instruction which, up to my enquiry, I had neither seen nor
been apprized of. In the letter Mr. Williams states that Mr. Desrue, the
former director of the Bank, could only make suppositions as to the
identity of the funds at the Bank but that subsequent to the time of Mr.
Desrue’s declaration to the juge d’instruction a telegram had been
received from, the New York office of the Bank,” stating that the funds
of the retrait were fully and well conserved by the council of
administration. In this letter he requests that the seals be lifted from
the funds in the Bank’s vaults since they were the private property of
the Bank and of private individuals.
Whereupon the Haitian judicial authorities called at the Bank to execute
a judicial order which provided for the lifting of the seals of the
funds in question but which also contemplated the removal of these funds
to another banking house to be placed there under seal. This latter part
of the order Mr. Williams reported was not read to him, and it was only
on his demand to see the order that he became acquainted with its full
contents.
Meanwhile, Mr. Williams had locked his safe and after reading the order
refused to allow it to be executed in any particular, and upon advice of
the counsel of the Bank declined to sign the procès verbal of the
proceedings.
Mr. Williams at once reported to the Legation the above and stated that
in his opinion based on all that he had heard with regard to the matter,
the Haitian Government would attempt to remove the funds by means of
force. He said that in such case it would take at the shortest five or
six days to break open the vault. I advised him to let the Government
use force effectively inasmuch as the time which would necessarily be
required to force open the safe would enable the Legation to take
necessary steps to prevent any actual removal of the Bank funds by
force.
[Page 508]
This attempted removal was reported by Mr. Williams in a telegram which
passed through this Legation and the Department.
On receipt of the Department’s January 26, 6 p.m., I reported, complied
verbally with the instructions therein contained and at the request of
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, corroborated the same in a note.
On February 3 the Minister of Foreign Affairs replied and stated that the
Haitian Government had never had the intention of using forcible means
to remove the amounts under seal at the Bank. Copy of this note is
enclosed.
As you will observe in the note from the Foreign Office above referred
to, the Minister states that his Department does not intend to renounce
its contractual right already affirmed to reject diplomatic
intervention, and is ready to submit to arbitration as provided for by
the contract of the Bank all differences raised between the parties.
He further states that the Haitian Government in the presence of a
profound and general emotion produced by the open hostility, by the
unheard-of conduct of the Bank, sees itself constrained to submit to the
country, without delay, all the documents, diplomatic or otherwise,
which bear on the subject.
This announcement was rendered immediately effective by the publication
in Le Moniteur of this note and also of the note dated January 12, 1915,
which was enclosed in my No. 29 of January 15, 1915, an unheard-of
proceeding and contrary to all diplomatic usage but one which the
Haitian Government has of late made constant use of. A communication
addressed to the French Minister with reference to the Bank was also
published in the same issue.
I have [etc.,]
[Inclosure 1—Translation.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to Minister Blanchard.
Department of State for Foreign
Relations,
Port au Prince,
January 23, 1915.
Mr. Minister: The National Bank of the
Republic of Haiti has exceeded all bounds. It was not enough to
have, disregarding the express terms of its contract, refused all
assistance to the Government; to have, on December 17 last, taken
from the Public Treasury the sum of $500,000; and finally, to have
lured the Government with vain promises of agreement with the sole
idea of gaining time, thus further to starve the impoverished people
and to augment the embarrassments of the administration. It now
makes known to the juge d’instruction, through a letter dated
January 15 signed by Mr. Williams, that contrary to the formal
declarations of its director, Mr. H. Desrue, there no longer remains
in the Public Treasury one single centime of the sum of about
$1,000,000 which had been deposited for the service of the
withdrawal of the paper money in circulation. It clearly admits,
therefore, that this considerable sum, which belongs not to its
private funds but to the distinct funds of the National Treasury,
has been removed in toto and exported to a foreign country. This
removal has been perpetrated secretly, unknown to the Government, in
contravention to the rights of the State, in violation of the penal
law and the contract which binds the two parties.
But this does not appear to have been sufficient. It dares to pretend
that the value which, on the word of its director Desrue, has
recently been put under seal as funds of the State, a value which
its director himself has represented to the juge d’instruction as a
part of the funds of the retrait, is the private property
[Page 509]
of the National Bank! The
vault of the Public Treasury would therefore be empty! The funds
deposited in this vault as guaranties of public contracts and
special functions, the sums of which the presence in this safe is
established by the two laws of the 18th and 23rd of December last
and by other official documents, all these sums would therefore have
vanished.
An attitude so violent on the part of the Bank does not permit the
Government to remain for a longer time inactive. Before the admitted
criminal act of the complete taking of the funds of the retrait and
in the presence of the disguised menace to seize (accaparer) the
funds of the State recognized as such by Director Desrue, a measure
imposes itself, that of safeguarding the funds of the Republic by
taking them from a dishonest Treasury, unworthy of the confidence of
the country. The Government could not hesitate. Respectful of the
law, it has requested justice to act.
In bringing these facts to your knowledge, the Department of Foreign
Relations does not intend to renounce its contractual right, already
several times affirmed, to reject diplomatic intervention. It
intends simply to fulfill a duty of courtesy towards your Government
in declaring its firm determination to submit to arbitration,
provided for by the contract with the Bank, all the differences
raised by the parties.
Moreover, I advise your excellency that the Haitian Government, in
the presence of a profound and general emotion produced by the open
hostility, by the unheard-of conduct of the National Bank, sees
itself constrained to submit to the country, without delay, all the
documents, diplomatic and otherwise, which bear on the subject.
It is of importance to the Republic that the public be informed. It
is of the highest importance that it be known that this country,
which scrupulously pays its exterior debt, is not, as an interested
press pretends, a country in bankruptcy; that the financial
difficulties of the present situation arise primarily from the
European war and that the campaign of calumnies carried on against
us by certain subsidized or deceived newspapers, is the odious work
of the bankers without conscience, without honor, whose principal
object is to injure our national independence.
To defeat this maneuver the Government of the Republic firmly counts
upon the cooperation of your Legation and upon the cooperation of
your Government fully and loyally informed.
I beg [etc.]
[Inclosure 2—Translation.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to Minister Blanchard.
Department of State for Foreign
Relations,
Port au Prince,
February 3, 1915.
Mr. Minister: By a note dated January 29
last,8 the
Legation of the United States notifies my Department that
the American Minister has been instructed to
say that the Government of the United States cannot consent
to the removal of funds belonging to the Bank without which
it is impossible for it to live up to its contractual
obligations, and to advise the Haitian Government that any
attempt to remove the funds of the Bank will compel him to
consider means of preventing any such violation of the
rights of foreign stockholders.
This note is the exact repetition of the verbal statement which your
excellency had made to me the same day, of which I had had the honor
to request of you written confirmation.
It referred to the amounts placed under seal on December 28, 1914, by
the juge d’instruction by virtue of the affirmation by the Bank
itself that the said amounts belong to the Haitian Treasury as
representing a portion of the funds of the retrait. The Bank had
affirmed at the same time, by word of mouth and over the signature
of its director, that there was held in addition, in its branches,
the sum of $221,180 belonging to the same fund of the retrait, i.
e., to the Haitian State. The Bank, in defiance of all these
affirmations, later believed it had discovered that the amounts
belonged to its private funds and, so that they might be used,
demanded the lifting of the seals; the Haitian Government, which
affirms and has irrefutable reasons to affirm its right of
[Page 510]
ownership of the funds,
hastened to approve of lifting the seals, but demanded that the
amount seized be deposited in the hands of third parties instead of
being in possession of the Treasury, whose conduct had removed all
right to the confidence of the State. The Bank refused to allow the
lifting of the seals.
The amount seized is therefore up to this hour on deposit at the
National Bank, where the Government has never had intention to go to
take it by violence.
When a judicial decision, regularly obtained, shall have recognized
the evident rights of the State, the National Bank, then brought
back, it is hoped, to the normal conviction as to its duties and to
a more just appreciation of its interests, will voluntarily submit
itself thereto and thus avoid the forcible execution which the law
sanctions in every country.
I have [etc.],
