738.3915/228
The Secretary of State to the High Commissioner in Haiti ( J. H. Russell )
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 70, of October 4, forwarding a copy of a translation of a note from the Minister [Page 439] of Foreign Affairs of Haiti containing further observations on the Haitian-Dominican boundary situation.
You are referred in this connection to the Department’s instruction of October 5 in which it was stated that a copy of your despatch of September 20 on the same subject had been sent to the American Legation at Santo Domingo for its information and for comment. No reply has as yet been received from the Minister at Santo Domingo. You will be promptly informed when such a reply is received.
Meanwhile it is desired that you should inform the Haitian Government that the Government of the United States expects that the line provisionally established in 1912 will be scrupulously respected by the governments both of Haiti and of the Dominican Republic. It is hoped that the establishment of a permanent constitutional government in the Dominican Republic will make it possible in the near future for the discussions between the two governments on the question of the frontier to be resumed. Meanwhile the status quo should be preserved on the basis of the 1912 line.
The Department has no information tending to substantiate the report referred to by the Haitian Government that Haitians on the Dominican side of the provisional line have been dispossessed of their property by the Dominican authorities. It is hoped that the Haitian Government will transmit through you reports of any specific cases of this nature which may have occurred.
A copy of your despatch under acknowledgment and of this instruction is being sent to the American Minister at Santo Domingo for his information.
I am [etc.]