738.3915/434
The Minister in the Dominican Republic (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 9.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that in conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs today, I inquired as to the present status of the relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Dr. Henríquez Ureña told me that this situation, in his view, had a dual aspect namely, with regard to the matter of the frontier between the two countries and, on the other hand, with regard to their general political relations.
As to the former, the Dominican Government was anxious to terminate the boundary dispute which had been going on for some sixty years, not only for the sake of clarity as to the frontier itself but also in order to minimize the recurring and apparently inevitable friction in the frontier zone resulting from uncertainty as to the location of the boundary. There had been considerable infiltration of Haitians into Dominican territory and in some cases Haitian municipal authorities had even been set up in that territory. Dr. Henríquez Ureña … said that, unfortunately, the Haitian-Dominican Boundary Treaty of 1929 was far from scientific in its description of the frontier line to be delimited. Moreover, boundary marks already established in the northern part of the line had been destroyed by floods in some places and the Haitian Government seemed disinclined to restore them. So far as could be judged here in the light of information from the Dominican Legation in Port-au-Prince and from other sources, the Haitian Government was deliberately following its traditional policy of keeping the boundary question open. Dr. Henríquez, however, called my attention to the peculiar political conditions in Haiti which had not long since occasioned attacks by the Opposition to the Haitian Administration upon the legality of a treaty concluded without the sanction of the Haitian Congress not then in existence. He added that perhaps this fact had made it seem inadvisable for the Haitian Government to show greater energy in the execution of the treaty.
The Minister told me in confidence that both he and his father, Dr. Francisco Henríquez y Carajal, Dominican Minister in Port-au-Prince, were in hopes of arranging for direct personal conversations as to the boundary question between the Dominican and Haitian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, such conversations possibly to be initiated in Port-au-Prince and continued in this Capital. Dr. Henríquez Ureña said he had long standing and friendly personal relations with Monsieur Léger, Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with other [Page 789] Haitian officials; he was therefore hopeful that the efforts now being made to prepare the way for such conversations would be facilitated. He thought his visit to Port-au-Prince would not take place before December or January next.
As to the other aspect of Dominican-Haitian relations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the Dominican Government was conscious of an attitude rather less than friendly on the part of the Haitian Government towards the Trujillo Administration. The explanation for this state of affairs was not very clear even in the mind of the Dominican Government, but the Minister was inclined again to attribute it to domestic political conditions in Haiti.
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All these circumstances, the Minister pointed out, indicated the necessity for a continued effort on the part of this Government to clear up existing misunderstandings with its neighbor, with whom the Dominican Government had no desire but to live in perfect and fraternal amity. It was the Minister’s intention, should the conversations above mentioned eventuate, also to sound the Haitian Government at that time as to the possibility of clearing the political atmosphere and eliminating the present state of mutual suspicion.
A copy of this despatch is being transmitted to the Legation in Port-au-Prince for its strictly confidential information.
Respectfully yours,