438.00/121a
The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (Jusserand)50
Excellency: Pursuant to the understanding which was reached between your Government and the Government of the United States and expressed in the Department’s memorandum of October 29, 1920,51 and your reply thereto of December 14, 1920,52 relative to the composition of a claims commission to adjudicate the claims of French nationals against the Government of Haiti in accordance with the provisions of the Protocol of October 3, 1919, between the United States and Haiti, I have the honor to inform you that this Government believes it expedient and opportune to initiate at once the selection of the Claims Commission. Under the arrangement agreed upon, the Claims Commission for the adjudication of the claims of French nationals against the Government of Haiti, excepting certain claims specifically exempted by the above mentioned and other pertinent correspondence, is to be composed of one member [Page 227] nominated by the Minister of Finance of Haiti, one member nominated by the Secretary of State of the United States, and a third member to be designated by the French Government and nominated by the Financial Adviser of the Haitian Government, all three members so nominated to be appointed by the Government of Haiti.
In view of the foregoing, I beg you to request your Government to designate the person whom it wishes nominated by the Financial Adviser to the Government of Haiti and to advise this Department of his name for transmission to the Financial Adviser. I also ask that in conveying this information to your Government you apprise it of the earnest desire of the Government of the United States that the Claims Commission be constituted and take up its duties at an early date, passing in the first instance upon the claims of French nationals. It is assumed that the person to be designated by the Government of France will be a French citizen resident elsewhere than in Haiti, since it is likely that anyone there resident would not bring the necessary unprejudiced viewpoint to the consideration of the questions at issue, and would therefore not be an acceptable member of the Claims Commission.
Article 9 of the said Protocol of October 3, 1919, provides that each member of the Claims Commission will receive eight thousand dollars gold per annum for salary and two thousand dollars gold per annum for expenses. In this connection it may be noted that, according to the understanding mentioned, the member to be designated by the Government of France is to serve only during the time when claims of French nationals are under consideration, and he is to submit his resignation to the President of Haiti at the expiration of this period in order that the President of Haiti may appoint another member to sit on the Commission for the consideration of claims other than French.
Simultaneously with the despatching of this note, this Government is requesting the Government of Haiti to instruct its Minister of Finance to designate the member to be nominated by him,53 and the Department of State is now considering the choice of a member for its nomination. In addition, the Department of State is advising the British Ambassador of this action taken and is asking him to request his Government to designate a member of the Commission to be nominated by the Financial Adviser for the consideration of the claims of British subjects to take place immediately after the consideration of the French claims has been concluded.
Accept [etc.]
- Through an inadvertence, this note was addressed to Ambassador Jusserand, but the Prince de Béam et de Chalais, Counselor of Embassy, was Chargé d’Affaires ad interim on this date.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1920, vol. ii, p. 829.↩
- Ibid., p. 833.↩
- The instruction to the Minister in Haiti directing him to present this request was not sent until Aug. 8; see infra.↩