838.51/2334a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Haiti ( McGurk )

72. If no accord has been reached regarding budgetary laws before October 1 there will be no budget which this Government can recognize as effective. The expenses of the Financial Service, including the debt service, and of the Garde are placed in a separate category by the Treaty of 1915 and the Haitian Government could not withhold payments to these Services simply by failure to enact appropriate budgetary legislation. Furthermore, it is obvious that the necessary running expenses of the Haitian Government must be met as a matter of public safety. You may therefore inform the Haitian Government that the Financial Adviser will be instructed if the necessity arises to make payments necessary for the maintenance of the Financial Services, the debt service, and the Garde under the provisions of the Treaty of 1915, and that the Government of the United States is prepared as an emergency measure to consent to the continued payment of what appear to you and the Financial Adviser to be the essential operating expenses of the Haitian Government pending a general accord on the budgetary laws. You will discuss with Pixley what expenses of the departments under Haitian control appear to be essential and indicate to the Haitian Government the willingness of the Government of the United States to have the Financial Adviser continue to meet these expenses as an emergency measure. The total expenditures, including those of the Treaty Services, should if possible be kept within an amount of approximately 2,500,000 gourdes per month.

The Government of the United States must insist that provision be made for the financial support of the medical mission in connection with the above proposed emergency arrangement.

You will take the above steps as an emergency measure pending the conclusion of an accord on the budget, which includes the Law of Ways and Means and Law of Expenditures. As stated in the Department’s instruction No. 65, September 23, 5 p.m., any agreement between the Executive and the office of the Financial Adviser based upon the transitory provision of the budgetary legislation should be in writing. Moreover, in view of the improper and obviously inaccurate statements contained in the preambles to the Law of Ways and Means and Law of Expenditures with respect to the Treaty, the Department likewise deems it to be necessary that the laws as modified by the accord with the omission or suitable revision of the preambles shall be promulgated in substitution for the budgetary legislation concerned.

Stimson