839.51/3568
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)
The Dominican Minister, Señor Despradel, came in at my request and I pointed out to him that there was a paragraph in his note of October 22 which did not conform with the statement in the penultimate paragraph of his note of October 20. The latter recognizes that the action of the Dominican Government is contrary to the Convention of 1924 and contracts with the bankers, whereas the paragraph in the note of October 22 states that the changes made in the law are to bring it within the terms of the Convention.
I suggested to him that all that would be necessary would be to hand us a new copy of the enclosure to the note of October 20, giving the text of the proposed law as recently modified in substitution of the text enclosed in that note. We would then give him back the text originally included in the note and there would then be no necessity for the note of October 22, which I would also give back to him.
Señor Despradel said that he was surprised at the wording also, but he had put it in the note under instructions from his Government and he would have to consult them first. He later called up and asked [Page 134] to come in to see me and said that on returning to his Legation he had received the text of the proposed law as finally submitted to the Congress,40 and he had brought it along to substitute for the one originally enclosed in his note of October 20. He made the substitution, and I gave him back the original text. He also took back with him the note of October 22.
- For the official texts of Laws No. 205 and No. 206, see Gaceta Oficial, No. 4404, October 24, 1931.↩