438.00/104
The French Ambassador ( Jusserand ) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: In the course of a conversation with the American Financial Adviser in Haiti, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Republic at Port au Prince gathered the impression that the Federal Government intended to set up a special commission to which all claims against the Haitian Government would be referred.
My Government wishes me, in this connection, to remind Your Excellency, for all pertinent purposes, that so far as the French claims are concerned, the question is no longer an open one, and that a protocol of arbitration was signed on September 10, 1913, between the Government of the Republic and the Haitian Republic, a protocol which remains to be executed.
If however the Federal Government should deem it necessary to constitute a new commission, my Government would not in any way [Page 828] interpose obstructions, but it ought to be well understood in that event that the said commission shall not have cognizance of the French claims already determined or arbitrated, except for the purpose of insuring their settlement, and that on the other hand its jurisdiction would extend to all other claims, including those which are too recent to have been entered in the schedule drawn up in 1913, as also the claims of Syrians, which might be presented by the Legation of France.
With regard to the composition of the commission, my Government is of opinion that, besides a French representative, there should be included therein a representative of a disinterested third power who, by siding with the one or the other of the parties, would carry the decision under every desirable safeguard. Again, my Government could see no objection, should such an arrangement promote an understanding, to the Haitian Government being represented on that commission by an American or even to the Financial Adviser being made a member.
I should be very thankful to Your Excellency if you would kindly let me know whether, as my Government hopes, you will favorably entertain the foregoing suggestions.
Be pleased [etc.]
- File translation revised.↩