[Enclosure—Translation]
The Dominican Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs (Sánchez) to the
American Chargé (Frost)
Santo Domingo, September 7, 1928.
No. 262Mr. Chargé d’Affaires: I have the honor
to acknowledge receipt of the note marked with number 124, of
August 27th of the present year, by which, in the name of your
Government, you transmitted to my Government for its
consideration and approval, in case of agreement, the text of
the treaty of renunciation of war as an instrument of policy in
the relations of the states and which establishes the adjustment
and solution of all disputes between states by pacific
means.
My Government has given its best attention and its most careful
study as well to your note already indicated as to the treaty,
whose text is integrally published in the mentioned note, and I
have received the charge of communicating to you the acceptance
on the part of the Dominican Government of the terms of the
treaty of renunciation of war signed in Paris on the 27th of
August of the present year between the Governments of Germany,
United States of America, Belgium, France, Great Britain,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the
Irish Free State, India, Italy, Japan, Poland and
Czecho-Slovakia.
The decision to accept the terms of said treaty and to adhere to
it, ad referendum, will be submitted to
the approval of the legislative chambers, at which time my
Government will formally instruct our diplomatic representative
in Washington to subscribe the act of adhesion.
In accepting the treaty of renunciation of war as a means for
solving the conflicts between States, my Government is
maintaining the
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invariable criterion of the Dominican Republic in this matter,
which culminated and took form in Art. 100 of our political
constitution which reads thus:
“The powers instituted by this constitution cannot
declare war without previously proposing
arbitration.
Paragraph. To guarantee this purpose, in all the
international treaties which the Republic makes there
shall be provided clauses relative to resolving every
difference by means of arbitration.”
It is, then, for my Government a source of real satisfaction to
adhere to the treaty of Paris of the date already indicated,
which crystallizes the efforts of the world in the elimination
of war as a means of adjusting and resolving the disputes
between States.
I beg you to transmit to your Government the thanks which my
Government expresses for the invitation contained in the note
under reference, as well as the sympathy with which my
Government has contemplated the valuable contribution which your
Government has given to the work of the guarantee of the peace
and of the progress of the world.
I welcome this opportunity [etc.]
