711.38/156a
President Harding to President Dartiguenave
Great and Good Friend: I am availing myself of the opportunity presented by the return to Haiti of Brigadier General John H. Russell to send to Your Excellency, by means of this letter, the renewed assurances of my most cordial friendship and the expression of my hope that a happy and satisfactory solution may soon be reached of the problems which now confront Your Excellency’s Government.
[Page 467]General Russell is returning to Haiti as my High Commissioner, with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary. I have noted with deep regret that the objects of the Treaty which was entered into by the Governments of the United States and Haiti on September 16, 1915, have not been promoted so rapidly as this Government had anticipated. I believe that the reason for this may in part be due to the fact that there has not, in the past, been the necessary spirit of cooperation between the members of Your Excellency’s Government and the officials nominated under the treaty of 1915 by the President of the United States and appointed by the President of Haiti. It will be the duty of General Russell, upon his return to Haiti as my High Commissioner, to supervise generally the work of the officials so appointed, and it is my thought that this supervision, leading to a more efficient conduct of the administration for which the Treaty provides, may remove whatever causes for friction between the officials of the two Governments may, in the past, unhappily, have existed and make possible an effective and loyal cooperation between the two Governments in the accomplishment of the purposes for which the Treaty was entered into. While routine communications will, in the future, as in the past, be conveyed to Your Excellency’s Government through the American Legation at Port au Prince, it is my intention that messages of importance from this Government to that of Your Excellency will be communicated, after General Russell’s return to Haiti, through my High Commissioner, and I trust that Your Excellency will lend him that necessary support which alone can make his mission successful.
In conclusion, I wish to make known to Your Excellency the sincere hope of this Government that the assistance which the Government of the United States, by reason of its Treaty obligations, is lending at this time to the Government of Haiti may effectively promote the happiness, welfare and prosperity of the Haitian Government and people, and permit me, likewise, to state, on behalf of this Government, that it is the most earnest desire of the United States that the day may soon come when the tranquillity and economic prosperity of the Haitian Republic and the finances of the Haitian Government will be on so stable and so sure a basis that the intervention of the United States in Haitian affairs will no longer be necessary.
Your Good Friend,
By the President:
Charles E.
Hughes
Secretary of State