File No. 838.51/423.
The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé Davis.
Washington, October 2, 1915.
Your September 29. The Department is informed Bank is telegraphing Reine that it is unwilling to accept arrangement proposed or make advances “as long as the situation is not regulated.”
In order to assist the Haitian Government in obtaining early and favorable action by Congress, the Department agreed to lend its good offices to secure the loans necessary for the financial rehabilitation of Haiti and undertook to obtain advance by the Bank of $100,000 immediately upon the ratification of the treaty. As you have already been informed, the Department is constrained to believe that a further issue of this unredeemable paper money will only serve to make still more difficult efforts to place Haitian finances on a firm and stable basis. Any loss of prestige mentioned by you can be but transitory and therefore no ill-advised temporary measures should be permitted to jeopardize measures for permanent relief which are assured once the treaty is ratified.
As to your suggestion regarding customs funds, it is intended to make use of these funds for organization of the constabulary with least possible delay, so as to bring about the establishment of permanent [Page 526] peace and to protect coffee growers and farmers in the harvesting and marketing of their crops. It would seem as if the interests of all, except a few Senators, depend upon the prompt ratification of the treaty, which the Department has a right to expect in view of its unquestioned intentions towards the Haitian people. It should not be impossible for the Haitian Government with the 250,000 gourdes still in hand to tide over the short interval until ratification is obtained, when advances to the Government will be immediately procurable.