838.00/2951

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)

Proposed Program in Haiti

As soon as he returns to Haiti Mr. Munro will at once resume negotiations on the Haitianization plan.30 This plan is nearly completed and it is understood will be as follows:

Public Works:

Mr. Munro will conclude the negotiations now nearly terminated regarding the Public Works Department, it being understood, although he will not so advise the Haitians immediately, that the Public Works Service will be completely Haitianized not later than January 1, 1932. Mr. Munro will be at liberty to turn over the whole Public Works Department to the Haitians any time after his return to Haiti that he thinks advisable.

Sanitation:

Mr. Munro will work out at once the administrative details in order to permit complete Haitianization of the Public Health Service with the exception of the Public Health Services in the cities of Port au Prince and Cape Haitien. This will mean an allocation by the Director of the Public Health Service of the budget to show just how much is expended by the two cities in question. This amount will be retained by him and the balance turned over to the Haitian authorities.

[Page 455]

The sanitation of the towns of Gonaїves and Cayes has not yet been accomplished. Mr. Munro will therefore suggest to the Haitians that they permit the completion of this work. If the Haitians wish that done, it will be done; if not, the scheme above set forth will be followed.

Service Technique.

The whole educational control will be immediately turned back to the Haitians. As regards agriculture, Mr. Munro will insist that Mr. Colvin be appointed as of July 1, last, giving the Haitians the understanding that he will retire from the Service on January 1, 1932, and that he will actually leave Haiti as much prior to that as he has leave of absence with pay due him. Of course Mr. Colvin would leave Haiti at once should the Haitians desire to pay him now in advance, say six months’ salary, in order to enable him to find employment up here. The other agricultural engineers will also remain not later than January 1, 1932. If, as Doctor Munro anticipates, the Haitian Government should desire some of these engineers to remain longer to keep up the agricultural work, especially until Haitian students in the United States can return and take over the work, this would be arranged on the basis of private contracts between these engineers and the Haitian Government. They would therefore cease to be Treaty Officials.

The above Treaty Services depend on Article XIII of the Treaty of 1915 and are the result of an agreement between the two Governments. The two Governments can therefore agree to suspend or abolish these Services. The Financial Services are based on Articles II to IX inclusive, and are a direct obligation on the part of Haiti as is the Constabulary, established by Article X, by which Haiti obligated itself for the creation of a Constabulary. These two Services therefore are in an entirely different category from the three others and, furthermore, third parties have interests based thereon, so that the Haitian Government can not change these except as the United States agrees.

Constabulary.

As there is no provision for a Constabulary after the Treaty expires on May 3, 1936, an agreement has been drawn up by which the Constabulary will be Haitianized by that time. Mr. Munro will stand on that basis and will decline any quicker Haitianization. As a matter of fact, the Haitianization drawn up by the Marine officers in chargé is somewhat more rapid than the Forbes’ Commission suggested.

In the Financial Services the administration of the land registration will be given up. In order to carry out the provisions of Article VIII of the Protocol of 1919, a new Convention will be negotiated, [Page 456] negotiations to begin immediately after the signing of the Haitianization program above mentioned. This Convention, although signed immediately, will go into effect on May 3, 1936, the date of the expiration of the Treaty of 1915, and will remain in full force and effect so long as any of the bonds issued under the Protocol of 1919 are outstanding. A draft of this proposed Convention is attached hereto.

F[rancis] W[hite]
[Annex 1]

Draft Agreement Between the United States and the Republic of Haiti

Preamble

The United States and the Republic of Haiti desiring to confirm and strengthen the amity existing between them by the most cordial cooperation in measures for their common advantage;

And the Republic of Haiti desiring to maintain uninterrupted financial stability indispensable to the development of the welfare of the Republic, and to carry out its contractual guarantees provided for by obligations of its present authorized bonded indebtedness;

And the United States being in full sympathy with all of these aims and objects and desiring to contribute in all proper ways to their accomplishment;

The United States and the Republic of Haiti have resolved to conclude an agreement with these objects in view, and have appointed for that purpose, Plenipotentiaries, etc.

Article I

The President of Haiti shall appoint, upon nomination by the President of the United States, a Financial Adviser-General Receiver, with such aides and employees as may be necessary, who shall collect, receive and apply all customs duties on imports and exports accruing at the several custom-houses and ports of entry of the Republic of Haiti.

The Financial Adviser-General Receiver will supervise and control the Bureau of Contributions in accordance with the organic law of June 6, 1924, establishing the Service called Administration Générale des Contributions, and in accordance with such other laws and amendments thereto as may be hereinafter agreed upon by the two Governments parties hereto.

Article II

The Government of the Republic of Haiti will provide by law or appropriate decrees for the payment of customs duties, internal revenues, receipts, and miscellaneous receipts from all sources whatsoever, [Page 457] to the Financial Adviser-General Receiver, and will extend to the Financial Adviser-General Receiver, all needful aid and full protection in the execution of the powers conferred and the duties imposed herein; and the United States on its part will extend like aid and protection.

Article III

All sums collected and received by the Financial Adviser-General Receiver shall be applied, first, to the interest and sinking fund of the public debt of the Republic of Haiti; and, second, to the payment of the salaries and allowances of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver, his assistants and employees and expenses of the financial service, including the expenses of the Administration Générale des Contributions; and the remainder shall then be available for the current expenses of the Haitian Government, as referred to in Article X and Article XII of this agreement.

In making these applications the Financial Adviser-General Receiver will proceed to pay salaries and allowances monthly and expenses as they arise, and at the end of each calendar month will set aside in separate funds the reserves for interest and amortization and operating allowances from the collections and receipts of the previous month from the customs and from the internal revenues.

Article IV

The expenses of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver, including his salary and allowances and those of his assistants and employees, excepting, however, those of the Administration Générale des Contributions, shall not exceed five per centum of the collections and receipts from customs duties, unless by agreement of the two Governments.

The expenses of the Direction Générale des Contributions, including the salaries and allowances of the Director General, his assistants and employees, shall not exceed fifteen per centum of the collections and receipts from internal revenues, unless by agreement by the two Governments.

Article V

The Financial Adviser-General Receiver shall maintain an adequate system of public accounting and shall make monthly reports of all collections, receipts and disbursements to the appropriate officer of the Republic of Haiti, which reports shall be open to inspection and verification at all times by the appropriate authorities.

Article VI

The Republic of Haiti shall not issue further series of the loan issued under the provisions of the Protocol signed at Port-au-Prince [Page 458] on October 3, 1919, in excess of $3,000,000.00 and to that extent only with the consent of the President of the United States and no such series shall be issued after 1940. Nor shall the Republic of Haiti otherwise increase its public debt, except by previous agreement with the President of the United States, and shall not contract any debt or assume any financial obligation unless the ordinary revenues of the Republic available for that purpose, after defraying the expenses of the Government, shall be adequate to pay the interest and provide a sinking fund for the final discharge of such debt.

Article VII

The Republic of Haiti will not without the previous accord of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver, modify the customs duties nor internal revenue taxes in a manner to reduce the revenues therefrom.

Article VIII

The Government of Haiti agrees to enact annually an appropriation law which will fix the amount of the appropriations for the ensuing fiscal year, and agrees that the budget shall be prepared in the following manner, which is in accordance with the present practice under existing law and international agreements:

Budget of Ways and Means

The Financial Adviser-General Receiver shall prepare an estimate of receipts in detail, which shall be considered to be the sum receivable for the ensuing fiscal year. This sum shall not exceed the total amount of the revenue received for the twelve calendar months ending January 31 of the current year except when changes in the revenue laws should make it desirable in his opinion to increase or decrease the estimate.

The Financial Adviser-General Receiver shall forward the estimate of receipts prepared as above to the Minister of Finance, to the end that a law fixing the ways and means, establishing such taxes and revenues for the ensuing year, shall be voted to insure the collection of the sums agreed upon from the sources mentioned in the estimates. The Law of Ways and Means shall conform to the provisions of the law of the 16th of August, 1929, except in so far as any change may be agreed upon hereafter, before enactment, by the Minister of Finance and the Financial Adviser-General Receiver.

Budget of Expenditures

The Minister of Finance shall prepare annually the budget of appropriations in the following manner, viz:

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Under Chapter I shall be included:—

1.
Provision for service of the public debt setting out in detail the various obligations, contractual commissions and contractual expenses.
2.
Provision for the service of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver and for the Service of the Administration Générale des Contributions.
3.
Provision for reserves for currency, unless by agreement with the Financial Adviser-General Receiver he shall determine that the existing reserve is adequate, and such other reserves as may be hereafter provided by law.
4.
Provision for contractual obligations which will include annual quotas for international institutions.

The sum total of Chapter 1 shall be subtracted from the sum total of the estimates of revenue fixed by the Law of Ways and Means, which shall have been arrived at as set out above.

The balance available thereafter will represent the amount expendable for the various current expenses of the Haitian Government, and shall include all non-capital operating expenses of the Government for the ensuing fiscal year.

Each department shall be shown under a separate chapter heading and each expenditure shall be shown in detail, setting out each position and salary. Each appropriation for rent, office supplies, telegraph and telephones, post, entertainment expenses, official bulletin, expense of mission, of travel, and of replacement of employees in foreign posts, or for any other purpose, shall be entered separately with appropriate description.

The sum total of the budget so prepared shall not exceed the sum total of the expendable balance arrived at in the manner set forth above and it shall be the duty of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver to examine the proposed budget to ascertain the correctness of the estimates for the public debt and for the amounts specified to be included in Chapter 1. Likewise he shall advise the Haitian Government of the omission of any item which, in his opinion, should have been included in said Budget.

The Financial Adviser shall give his accord to the budget so prepared providing he has ascertained that all items with reference to the public debt, contractual commissions and expenses of the service of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver, service of the Administration Générale des Contributions, reserves for currency, provisions for international institutions and special contractual obligations have been duly included in Chapter 1 in accordance with the schedule of priorities provided in Article III, and in accordance with the amounts specified by agreement between the two Governments, in so far as the service of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver and the Administration Générale des Contributions are concerned; and when he shall have ascertained that the total of the proposed budget does not exceed [Page 460] the total of available revenues in accordance with the estimates of revenue which have been prepared as herein provided.

Article IX

The Financial Adviser shall communicate such accord to the Haitian Government in writing, through the Minister of Finance, and in case his accord is not given, before the commencement of any fiscal year, to the budget for that year, then the preceding budget shall continue in operation for the next year, and thereafter until such accord is given in accordance with the provisions hereof.

Article X

The expenditures for each fiscal year shall be made in conformity with the provisions of the Law of Expenditure, as enacted for the fiscal year 1929–30, which shall be enacted annually in accordance with constitutional provisions and which shall have the same form as the Law of Expenditure for 1929–30 except for the following amendments:

The assent of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver shall not be required in respect of the provisions of Article 8 of said law.

In case the Financial Adviser-General Receiver during the course of any fiscal year shall find that the revenues of that year will be below those estimated and budgeted, he shall notify the Minister of Finance of the amount of such deficiency, and the balance available for the current expenses of the Haitian Government for the remainder of that fiscal year shall be reduced accordingly, provided however that the Financial Adviser-General Receiver in accord with the Minister of Finance may determine that all or part of any such deficiency shall be met from reserves.

Article XI

The Law of Ways and Means and the Law of Expenditure shall be prorogued by implication unless specifically reenacted in accordance with the provisions of this agreement.

Further amendments to the Law of Expenditure may be made with the accord of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver and shall be valid only if they receive such accord.

Article XII

Until the retirement of all of the bonds issued under the provisions of the Protocol signed at Port au Prince on October 3, 1919, no appropriations in excess of the amount set forth in the budget approved by the Financial Adviser-General Receiver shall become effective or constitute a chargé upon the Treasury unless such appropriations [Page 461] have received the accord of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver.

Article XIII

This agreement shall remain in full force and effect from May 3, 1936, until the complete retirement of the bonds issued or to be issued under the provisions of the Protocol signed at Port au Prince on October 3, 1919, and upon the payment or retirement of all bonds which may have been issued by virtue thereof, it shall become null and void and of no effect.

[Annex 2]

Memorandum by the Minister in Haiti (Munro), Temporarily in Washington

Supplementary Haitianization Agreement Regarding the Financial Services

This agreement would be discussed at the time when the new convention is negotiated, and its aim would be to provide for the turn-over to Haitian control of those functions of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver’s office which will not continue under the new convention. This will include particularly the administration of state lands, and any functions connected with the internal revenue collection which the Department considers it advisable to give up. Very little Haitianization of personnel will be possible.

In the agreement which we are now discussing with the Haitian Government we shall probably give up the Land Title Registry and the Division of Markets.

  1. In telegram No. 26, April 24, 7 p.m., the Secretary informed Mr. Munro that he might proceed with his negotiations on the basis of the program and draft convention drawn up and discussed with him on April 22 (838.00/2956a).