838.51/1608
The Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs, Department of State (White) to the Secretary of the French Embassy (Henry)
My Dear Monsieur Henry: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of January 4, 1924, informing me that the Bank of the Parisian Union has requested that the question of the redemption of the Haitian loan of 1910 in gold coin should be submitted to arbitration. I have noted your statement that the French Government approves of the request made by the Bank of the Parisian Union.
I may say for your information that the Department has already had occasion to consider the question whether the Bank of the Parisian Union might properly demand an arbitration of the question of the payment of the 1910 bonds under the provisions of the loan contract.3 It has expressed to the Haitian Government its opinion that the holders of the bonds of the 1910 loan, since they are presumably not parties to the contract, would not be in a position to request arbitration of the question whether the outstanding bonds should be redeemed in gold or paper francs, and that it would not seem that the Fiscal Agent under the 1910 contract could properly advance a claim for arbitration on behalf of the bondholders. It would seem that the Fiscal Agent’s function in paying the bonds as agent of the Haitian Government is a purely ministerial one. The Fiscal Agent Would not appear to have any right to raise an objection to the mandate which might be received from the Government in the matter, or to do otherwise than to apply for the purpose specified any funds which it might receive.
I am [etc.]
- Text of loan contract printed in Le Moniteur, Oct. 26, 1910, p. 608.↩