838.00 Commission of Investigation/2
The Secretary of State to President Hoover
My Dear Mr. President: I have received your letter of September 25 regarding the situation in Haiti. As you know, I have been giving this matter careful thought for some time as it is one of the major and difficult problems we are confronted with in our foreign relations.
I fully agree with you that we should have some definite policy mapped out and I feel that this can best be done in the way you suggest, namely, by setting up a Commission of highly important citizens to examine into the whole question in Haiti, and to make a report of concrete suggestions as to the course to be followed for the future.
The Haitian problem is one that has been left to each succeeding Administration by the Wilson Administration. The institution of the High Commission was started in 192222 as a result of the recommendations of the Senatorial Investigating Committee of 1921. In view of the lapse of time since then, I feel it eminently desirable that the whole question should again be carefully reviewed and a definite policy determined upon.
I am [etc.]
I should like to talk with you about this before the personnel of the Commission is decided on.