838.00/2943: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti (Munro)
21. Your 25, March 30, noon. April 12 would be a convenient time for you and the Financial Adviser to come to the Department and you are hereby instructed to come to Washington at that time accompanied by Mr. de la Rue.26
The Department of course would be glad to have you continue your conversations with the Haitians in order to lay before it when you come up as fully as possible their point of view. The Department, however, can not authorize you to enter into any agreement such as is quoted in your telegrams No. 17 and 18.27 The second sentence in the clause quoted in your telegram No. 17 apparently means a complete Haitianization in due course of the entire personnel except the General Receiver. This is inconsistent with Article II of the Treaty which provides specifically that “such aids and employees as may be necessary” are to be appointed upon nomination of the President of the United States. An agreement now completely to Haitianize these Services admits in advance that after 1936 there will only be one American official to collect the customs. As set forth in its No. 18 of [Page 441] March 26, 7 p.m., the Department can not agree to any arrangement under which the fiduciary obligations of the United States toward the beneficiaries of the bonds are impaired and that the proposed Convention must contain a recognition and reaffirmation by Haiti of the effective control of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver over the financial Services, such control to continue so long as any of the bonds are outstanding.
Furthermore, the Department is inclined to feel that your task in negotiating the new Convention will be far easier if Haiti still has something to gain by it and is not merely called upon to give something to the United States, namely an effective continuance of financial control. The Department feels that this can be done without bargaining merely by stating what the United States is willing to do and standing on that ground, but there must be some inducement to the Haitian Government or it will not conclude the Convention. If the Haitianization is all agreed upon in advance, the Department fears that you will have great difficulty over the Convention.
The Department desires therefore that you discuss fully with the Haitian Government its point of view on all outstanding matters but that you do not make any definite commitments until after you have had an opportunity to discuss the matter fully with the Department.