838.51/2580
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti (Armour)
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 32 of December 6 [26], 1932, transmitting a copy of a memorandum prepared and [Page 714] signed by the Minister of Foreign Relations of a proposal made to you during a conversation with the President on December 22, together with a copy of your memorandum of the conversation in question. The Department notes that apparently the Haitian Government has reached the stage where it desires to bargain for our approval of a loan in some form or other.
To date, the bankers have not submitted any proposition to the Department and the Department cannot of course even intimate to the bankers that it is awaiting a proposition to which it might possibly give its approval. It should be perfectly clear to the Haitian Government that the Government of the United States cannot undertake to increase its commitments in any way until such time as it is assured that adequate measures of financial control, required by the Protocol of 1919, will be in effect after the Treaty expires in May, 1936. At the same time the Department does not wish to assume the position of endeavoring to bargain for such assurance or of threatening to withhold its approval of any loan proposition when there is no such proposition before it. The action which the Department would take on any loan proposition, once satisfactory assurances as to financial control were received, would of course depend on the merits of the proposition.
If you believe that the Haitian Government sincerely desires to propose certain changes or modifications in the Treaty, particularly Protocol B, which would not affect the substance thereof, with a view to resubmitting the Treaty to the legislative body in April, the Department will be particularly interested in knowing the Haitian Government’s views.
Very truly yours,