738.3915/228
The High Commissioner in Haiti (J. H. Russell) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received September 28.]
Sir: I have the honor to invite the attention of the Department to the consideration of the Haitian–Dominican Boundary question.
Correspondence on file in this Legation indicates that the Haitian Government has been ever-ready to submit the boundary question to arbitration, and under date of June 2nd, 1921 the American Minister to Haiti addressed a letter to the Secretary of State, Washington, D. C., which embodied the views of the Haitian Government on this question.68
Recently, there have been several cases of violations of the boundary by both Haitians and Dominicans, and it is believed that this subject is one of vital importance deserving prompt consideration by the Dominican Government.
The latter part of last month I received a letter from the President of Haiti informing me that he had learned an American Commission escorted by Marines and coming from Dominican territory was about to begin operations in the region of Pedernales, with a view to outlining the frontier.
The President furthermore requested that I inform him if such Commission was working under the mandate of the Washington Government, as mediators between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti on the conflict of frontiers, or if it held solely the mandate of the Dominican Government. In the first case, he stated that we would here regulate the question, but in the second case, he asked me to draw the attention of the Military Government of Santo Domingo to the imperative necessity of a previous agreement with the Haitian Government if the Commission in the course of its work intend to penetrate Haitian territory. This request from the President was communicated by me to the Military Governor of Santo Domingo, who in reply informed me that the President of Haiti had been misinformed, the work in question having no connection with the Dominican–Haitian frontier question, but being merely a mapping party working in the region referred to in connection with the military map of Santo Domingo in course of preparation, [Page 435] the map including the whole of the Dominican Republic in accordance with the Taft line,69 and that the Haitian Government need have no fear of any encroachment.
On September 12th, 1922, a letter was received from the President of Haiti, informing me that he had just received a telegram from the Prefect of Jacmel, dated from Anse à Pitres, where the Prefect was at the time on an inspection trip. In this telegram the Prefect stated that on the previous evening, September 11th, at about 10:00 p.m., a Marine coming from the Dominican side had opened fire upon the house in which he, the Prefect, was sitting. That he had called for help, that two Gendarmes had responded, that the Marine had opened fire upon the Gendarmes, and that the Gendarmes in returning the fire of the Marine, had killed him.
I immediately despatched an officer to Anse à Pitres to investigate this incident and informed the Military Governor of Santo Domingo of the contents of the Prefect’s report. The Military Governor of Santo Domingo informed me that a Court of Inquiry had been ordered, and it would reach Pedernales by tug on the 16th of September, 1922, and that he would appreciate any assistance, and welcome any representative that I might care to send. Major Vande-grift, the officer sent by me to investigate this case, was consequently directed to remain at Anse à Pitres, collect witnesses and render every assistance to the Court of Inquiry, as well as to make his own report of the occurrence.
Recent telegrams from Major Vandegrift corroborate the report made by the Prefect.
I am in receipt of a note from the Haitian Government concerning this matter, a copy of which is attached hereto.70
The attention of the Department is respectfully invited to the great importance of the frontier question between Haiti and Santo Domingo, especially so in view of the anticipated withdrawal of United States forces from the Dominican Republic, and in this connection, it is my strong opinion that before said withdrawal is effected the Receiver General of Dominican Customs should be directed to re-establish and operate a border patrol, whose duty it should be to patrol the border line fixed by the United States Government in 1912 as the provisional de facto boundary line between the two Republics.71
It is further urged that in accordance with the wishes of the Haitian Government immediate steps be taken to obtain the consent [Page 436] of the Dominican Government to submit the boundary question to arbitration.
It is believed that only when this question has been definitely settled and the boundary line is well marked by monuments that boundary disputes will cease.
I have [etc.]
- Ibid., p. 229.↩
- The line shown on the War Department Map of Haiti and Santo Domingo, prepared by the second (military information) division, General Staff, Washington, 1907 and 1908, on Monte Christi sheet no. 6 and Barahona sheet no. 7.↩
- Not printed.↩
- See Department’s telegram of Sept. 24, 1912, 3 p.m., Foreign Relations, 1912, p. 368.↩