738.3915/224

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

No. 498

Sir: Referring to the Department’s No. 394, of April 13, 1921 (File No. LA.738.3915/220) regarding the Dominican–Haitian Boundary question, I have the honor to report that I complied with the instructions therein contained by a note to the Foreign Office under date of May 19, 1921, copy of which is herewith enclosed,26 and to which I received in reply from the Minister of Foreign Affairs a note dated May 24, 1921, copy and translation of which is also herewith enclosed.26

As you will observe the Minister of Foreign Affairs states that the Haitian Minister at Santo Domingo had been authorized to sign the protocol agreed upon with the Dominican Government27 with the addition of the two following Articles which figured in the Treaties of 1895 under the numbers 8 and 9:

Translation

  • Art. 8. “If the point is resolved in favor of the Haitian Nation, the Dominican Government pledges itself to trace the definite frontier line so that all the possessions occupied by Haiti in the year 1874 remain in her favor.
  • Art. 9. “If the arbitrator decides the question according to the interpretation sustained by the Dominican Government, then the latter, considering that Haiti has always occupied and peopled the territory in litigation since a lapse of time and considering that today it would be impossible for the Dominican Government to indemnify the Haitian proprietors of the property situated and established in the said territory, as likewise it would be impossible for it to occupy and people it with Dominican families, pledges itself to agree with the Haitian Government, availing for this purpose of the express authorization which the sovereign people have conferred upon it, to leave Haiti in possession, with perfect right, of the territory which it occupied in 1874, in consideration of a just pecuniary compensation.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs adds that it seemed to the Haitian Government that there could be no difficulty as to this addition and that Admiral Snowden28 with whom the matter had been discussed saw no objection to it.

[Page 230]

Mr. Barau further states that from the foregoing the Department will observe that the Haitian Government has always been desirous that a definite settlement of this frontier question be reached and that its opinion has not changed.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs finally requests me in informing my Government of the above, to advise it that the Haitian Government is ready to send to its Representative at Santo Domingo the necessary full powers to sign the arbitral protocol with the additions above indicated.

I have [etc.]

A. Bailly-Blanchard
  1. Not printed.
  2. Not printed.
  3. Foreign Relations, 1920, vol. i, p. 308.
  4. Thomas Snowden, rear admiral, U. S. N.; Military Governor of Santo Domingo.