738.3915/437
The Minister in the Dominican Republic (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 7.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the Department’s instruction No. 192 of November 25, 1931, (File No. 738.3915/435), and to report that in conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs today I called attention to the erroneous reference, in the memorandum handed to my predecessor here by the predecessor of the present Minister of Foreign Affairs in July last, to a supposed proffer of mediation by the Government of the United States in the settlement of the [Page 792] boundary dispute between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I made it clear that the American Government has not at any time proffered such mediation. Dr. Henríquez Ureña confirmed the surmise referred to in the third paragraph of my despatch No. 46 of November 3 last, that the use in that memorandum of the word “mediation” was meant to be taken in a vernacular rather than in a strictly diplomatic sense. He added that he thought the memorandum might have been drawn more carefully in this respect.
The Minister told me that pending the outcome of the January congressional election in Haiti, he believed there was little hope of making any progress in the boundary dispute between this Republic and Haiti. Consequently, he hardly expected to be able to take the matter up more actively with the Haitian Government until the latter part of January next, at which time he apparently intends, if possible, to begin the direct conversations mentioned in my despatch No. 33 of October 28.
Respectfully yours,