438.00/116
The Acting Secretary of State to the French Ambassador ( Jusserand )
Excellency: In further reply to Your Excellency’s note of December 14, 1920,90 with particular reference to the request therein that a solution should be reached as soon as possible with regard to the service of the foreign debt and internal debt of Haiti, I have the honor to state that the Financial Adviser of that Republic has informed this Department that in February 1920 he advised the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company in Paris to transfer from funds to his credit as Financial Adviser in that Bank to the Société Credit et Industriale and to the Banque l’Union Parisienne francs in sufficient amount to pay the deferred interest coupons on the loans of 1875, 1896 and 1910, to January 1, 1919, and authorized the above banks to pay the deferred coupons on the said loans to that date from the sums deposited with them by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company. Further, the Financial Adviser states that in September 1920 he placed to his credit in the above Company at Paris 32,397,253.78 francs, and that in October 1920 he advised the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company to transfer 1,604,526.31 francs of this amount to the Banque l’Union Parisienne to the credit of A. J. Maumus, Receiver General of Customs in Haiti for the purpose of meeting the interest coupons maturing November 15, 1920, of the loan of 1910. A cablegram from the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company in, Paris has informed the Financial Adviser that the above amount was so transferred and the interest coupons due November 15th were paid.
[Page 844]This Department is also informed by the Financial Adviser of the Haitian Government that the amount necessary to pay the semiannual interest coupons of the loans of 1875 and 1896, the former due January 1, 1921, and the latter due December 31, 1920, has been deposited with the Société Credit et Industriale, and that there is sufficient monies to the credit of the Financial Adviser in the Paris banks to pay the deferred amortization on the three loans, to wit., 1875, 1896 and 1910, as well as the amortization falling due on December 31, 1920, and January 1, 1921. Finally, the Financial Adviser states that under his direction the deferred amortization is now being paid and that he has provided for amortization falling due. In October of this [last] year the Receiver General of Customs of Haiti provided that $136,626.74 monthly be set aside for the service of the external debt.91 It would appear in view of the facts set forth above that the Government of Haiti had made adequate provision for the payment of interest and amortization on its external debt.
In connection with the solution of the internal debt of the Republic of Haiti which the Government of France urgently requests should be reached as soon as possible, I have the honor to state that this Government equally recognizes the desirability of such a solution, and is able to inform Your Excellency that it will be attained as soon as the negotiations now in progress for a loan to Haiti shall be successfully concluded. As you are aware, the Government of the United States has made repeated efforts to assist the Government of Haiti in securing such a loan which would enable that country to pay its debts, and that the unprecedented condition in which the world has found itself during the past five years has always intervened to prevent the conclusion of such a loan. Such conditions unfortunately are still hampering its immediate achievement, but I am pleased to state that the Department is hopeful of the conclusion of the Haitian loan in the very near future.
I can assure Your Excellency that the Government of the United States has taken into consideration the facts relative to the foreign and internal debt of Haiti set forth in Your Excellency’s note of December 14, 1920, and will continue in the future as has been the case in the past always to take into account the rights of the French creditors in Haiti.
Accept [etc.]