438.41R54/5
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador ( Geddes )
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note of July 2, 1921,44 with regard to the claim against the Haitian Government made by Messrs. Roberts Dutton and Company, [Page 225] which, on instruction from Your Excellency’s Government you again bring to my attention.
In replying specifically to the question of this claim, I have the honor to state that the matter has been referred to the Financial Adviser of the Haitian Government for his opinion, and upon receipt of his response a further note will be addressed to Your Excellency.
In general relation, however, to the question of the settlement of claims against the Government of Haiti, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that the Government of the United States has decided that the moment is now opportune for the constitution of the Haitian Claims Commission as provided for in the Protocol of October 3, 1919, between the Republic of Haiti and the United States. The understanding arrived at between Your Excellency’s Government and the Government of the United States in respect to the composition of the Committee to pass upon the claims of British subjects, as set forth in Your Excellency’s note of January 31, 1920,45 and May 12, 1920,46 and the replies of this Department thereto of May 6, 1920,47 and May 19, 1920,45 respectively, provide that during the consideration of British claims the Haitian Claims Commission shall be composed of one member nominated by the Minister of Finance of Haiti, one member nominated by the Secretary of State of the United States and the third member, a British subject, to be nominated by the Financial Adviser to the Government of Haiti, after consultation with the British Embassy in Washington, all of the above to be appointed by the Government of Haiti.
Article IX of the Protocol of October 3, 1919, provides that each member of the Claims Commission shall receive eight thousand dollars gold per annum for salary as well as two thousand dollars gold per annum as expenses. In this regard it should be noted that the member designated after consultation between the British Embassy and the Financial Adviser to the Government of Haiti is to serve only during the time when the claims of British nationals are under consideration by the Commission, and this temporary member is to submit his resignation to the President of Haiti at the expiration of this period in order that the Government of Haiti may appoint another member to sit on the Commission for the consideration of the claims of nationals of other Governments.
To the end that the Commission may be constituted at an early date, I have the honor to request that Your Excellency give the subject your present consideration, and that I be advised as soon as Your [Page 226] Excellency’s Embassy is prepared to consult with the Financial Adviser respecting the selection of the British subject who is to serve as the third member of the Claims Commission during the consideration of British claims.
For the information of Your Excellency’s Government, I deem it pertinent to state that an understanding similar to the one noted above has been arrived at with the Government of France48 upon the question of adjudication of the claims of French citizens against the Republic of Haiti and a note has been addressed to the French Ambassador upon this subject substantially the same as this communication to you,49 advising the Government of France that in view of the fact that French nationals have the greatest claims against the Republic of Haiti, these claims will be given precedence and will be adjudicated as soon as the Claims Commission has been constituted with a French citizen sitting as a third member during the consideration of French claims. Immediately upon the conclusion thereof the French member will resign and the British member will be appointed for the consideration of the claims of British nationals.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1920, vol. ii, p. 829.↩
- Ibid., p. 828.↩
- Not printed.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1920, vol. ii, pp. 829 ff.↩
- Infra.↩