[Enclosure]
The Acting Financial Adviser to the Haitian
Government (Maumus) to the Financial
Adviser (McIlhenny), temporarily
in the United States
[Port au Prince,] July 1, 1921.
Dear Mr. McIlhenny: I enclose herewith a
translation of a letter sent by me to the Minister of Finance under
date of June 30, 1921.27a Our available funds are so low that this month I
am making no advance to the Gendarmerie until
July 10, and the advances to the Sanitary Engineer and the Engineer
of Haiti are being made in three payments, on July 1, 14, and 29. It
is essential that definite action be taken with respect to the
financial situation here without delay.
The Haitian Government has had nine months within which to take
action to increase receipts or reduce expenses, and nothing has been
done in either direction, nor will anything be done by the present
government unless force or other compulsion is applied. The Minister
of Finance, whose intentions are good enough, has not been able even
to enforce the existing internal revenue laws because of the
opposition of his colleagues. As you have been informed, he had an
examination of the books of the electric light company and the
P.C.S. railroad made to determine the amount due the Government in
taxes for past years, with the view of instituting prosecutions.
Nothing has been done. …
We are at the end of our resources here, and it is my purpose, unless
I receive definite instructions from Washington to the contrary
accompanied by assurance that funds will be available to meet
payments, to inform the Hatian Government about July 20 (the usual
date for sending through the mandats) that
there are no funds with which to meet the expenses of the Haitian
Government proper, and that the mandats will
not be paid. I propose to pay so much of the Gendarmerie contract allowance as the Chief of the Gendarmerie certifies is required, on the
ground that it is preferred under the Treaty and maintenance of
public order is paramount. I also propose to pay the necessary
expenses of the Sanitary Service on the ground that public health is
next in importance after public order and safety. I further propose
to pay such part of the expenses of the services under the Engineer
in Chief as is necessary to keep ways of communication and
transportation open and to maintain the public buildings and
property under its supervision, and probably also will pay the
expenses of the postal service under the Department of Finance. This
will result in charges of discrimination against Haitians, [Page 212] but it is the only
solution that I can see. I estimate that receipts including the
amount which can be used from the reserve for interest and
amortization of debts, will be about sufficient to pay the above
mentioned expenses. Everything else will have to be delayed until
additional receipts are forthcoming from a loan or from new
taxation.
I propose to suspend all Haitian Government payments, not merely a
part of them, until such time as there shall be a sufficient amount
available (an improbable event) with which to pay all the expenses
of an entire month. To do otherwise would open the door to a form of
graft prevalent here before the Occupation, when members of the
government directly or indirectly bought unpaid payrolls at huge
discounts and immediately had them paid at par. This practice was so
prevalent and so remunerative that few payrolls were ever paid to
the persons named therein. We can not afford to permit or tolerate
the recurrence of such graft, and there is no way to prevent it
other than to announce that none of the monthly expenses will be
paid until an amount is available sufficient to meet the whole.
In this connection I am informed that the Haitian Minister at
Washington, after the protest was made against the $175,000 monthly
segregation plan, advised his Government that he had been assured by
the Department of State that, whatever happened, the salaries,
pensions, etc., would be paid. I can not believe that any such
assurance was ever authoritatively given by the Department of State,
but the Haitian Government certainly thinks it has this assurance
and, feeling that salaries are safe, whatever happens, has followed
a drifting policy without any effort to prevent bankruptcy and
apparently welcoming it as another proof that the Treaty brought
nothing but evil to Haiti.
Most sincerely yours,
