838.51/2526: Telegram
The Chargé in Haiti (Heath) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 30—7:15 a.m.]
117. The President sent for me today to request that I present, if possible, a note of objections to the implications in the Haitian note which was the subject of my telegram 116, September 27, 9 p.m., and which was written in answer to my [note] transmitting the Department’s views on the situation resulting from nonratification of the treaty communicated in its [the Legation’s] telegram No. 110, September 22 [21], 11 p.m. [a.m.] He would then publish all three notes simultaneously together with a note in which I had communicated textually the observations of the Department’s telegram No. 63, September 23, 5 p.m., on the occasion of the report of the [Commander of the Garde?] to the President of his plans to Haitianize the Department of the South.
The President stated that he was anxious to publish this correspondence before public opinion crystallized against the idea of a new treaty.
The Government has not only been defending the advantages offered by the new treaty but has been seeking to arouse apprehension [Page 686] of the consequences should a new agreement not be obtained. Thus the last Haitian note implies by the fact of raising the question that the United States is now prepared by reason of the nonratification of the treaty to stop Haitianization of the Garde until 1936.
Both the President and the Foreign Minister said that they apprehended the effect of a public statement by the Department in the matter and suggest as an alternative more acceptable to them that any protest of these implications be embodied in a note which would be made public with the rest of the correspondence.
This I think would be an acceptable solution. I advised the Foreign Minister, however, that it would not be practical immediately to reply in full to his last note.
I personally feel that it would be a mistake to leave uncorrected the inaccuracies of the Haitian note, the more so as I am not persuaded that fear of a retard in Garde Haitianization would have the desired effect on public opinion in regard to the treaty. It would very possibly cause a regrettable discontent among Haitian Garde officers to feel that their advancement was subject to political contingencies.
The text and translation of the Haitian note in question were sent air mail this morning and should arrive at Washington tomorrow. I request that the Department cable instructions by tomorrow if possible to present a note pointing out that the last Haitian note gives an erroneous impression of the Department’s plans with respect to Haitianization of the Garde.