438.00/117

The Acting Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (Jusserand)

Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency’s notes of December 14 and December 26, 1920, relative to the settlement of the claims of French nationals in Haiti, as well as to the payment of interest and amortization on the foreign and internal debt of that Republic, and to state in the above connection that this Department is gratified to note that Your Excellency’s Government is disposed to accept the procedure suggested in the Department’s memorandum of October 29, 1920, in connection with the settlement of the claims above noted; this acceptance being with certain exceptions and on condition that the procedure shall be well defined through an exchange of notes with regard to three specific points set forth in Your Excellency’s note of December 14, 1920. Inasmuch as this procedure is to be that of the Haitian Government rather than of the United States, it would appear that the former is the proper Government to effect such an exchange of notes with Your Excellency’s Government. I may add, however, that this Government does not perceive any objection to the principles involved in the three points mentioned above nor to their definition through such an exchange of notes.

In regard to the French claims that have already been settled in principle as the consequence of a regular proceeding, that is to say, the claims grouped under A, B and C in Your Excellency’s note of December 14, 1920, I fully agree with Your Excellency’s view that, with the exception of the Gluck Claim which will be considered later, they should not be referred to the Claims Commission.

In respect to the Gluck claim mentioned above, I am pleased to observe from Your Excellency’s note of December 26, 1920, that the Government of France is disposed to let that claim be referred to the Claims Commission, provided, however, that it be distinctly understood that the Commission should only pass upon the question of the execution of the judgment. The Government of the United States fully concurs in this aspect of the case.

The question of the service of the foreign and internal debt of the Haitian Republic is one which, if Your Excellency will permit, I will have the honor to answer in detail by a separate note at an early date.77

Accept [etc.]

Norman H. Davis
  1. Note of Jan. 17, 1921, p. 843.