Office of the Historian

838.51/810: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti (Bailly-Blanchard)

Washington, February 27, 1919, 7 p.m.

Your February 14, 9 a.m.

You will urge upon the Haitian Government and the Acting Financial Adviser the signature of the note to the Bank without awaiting the completion of the plan of monetary reform, since this plan is receiving diligent consideration here by Mr. McIlhenny and representatives of the Bank and will be ready for submission for signature in a few days, without material change from the protocol between the Minister of Finance, the Financial Adviser, and the Bank, of January 7, 1919.52

In regard to the legality of the Government’s signing such a note, you will point out that apparently the authority for the expenditure involved can properly be obtained by the promulgation of an additional budget by the President under the existing budget law.

If the Government still feels unable to sign the note in its present form, you will suggest the signature of an agreement in the following terms. “It is agreed between the Republic of Haiti and the Banque Nationale de la République d’Haiti that on the 31st day of December, 1916, the Government was indebted to the Banque Nationale de la République d’Haiti in the principal amount of dollars United States gold representing cash advances made from time to time to the Government of Haiti for budgetary and other requirements of the Government. And this principal amount of dollars, together with accrued interest thereon at the rate of 6 per centum per annum up to the date of the execution of this note, making a total amount of dollars the Government of the Republic of Haiti hereby agrees to pay in United States currency to the Banque Nationale de la République d’Haiti or its assigns, either at its office at Port au Prince or at New York as the Bank may elect, on or before the 31st day of December, 1921, and to pay interest on the said amount of dollars quarterly at the rate of 6 per centum per annum from the date of this agreement until its final payment.”

If the form of this agreement is objectionable to the Government from a legal standpoint, you will ascertain what form of agreement [Page 361] or note the Government feels itself able to sign, containing a definite acknowledgment of the sum due by the Government to the Bank and a definite agreement to pay this sum, with 6 per cent interest, on December 31, 1921.

Polk
  1. Copy of protocol not found in Department files.↩