838.51/2612: Telegram

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

23. Legation’s telegrams numbers 14 and 15 of February 27 and 28. De la Rue has submitted the report called for in the Department’s telegraphic instruction No. 8 of February 25, 12 noon. Copies will be sent by air mail leaving March 11.44

The report contains the detailed estimates of the engineers of the cost of completing section 1 of the irrigation of the Artibonite Valley. The cost would be $400, 127 and 7,000 acres would be irrigated at an expense of about $57 an acre. The dam and all masonry work for section 1 is designed to serve a larger area and the expenditure $174,000 additional would enable an extra 9,000 acres to be irrigated making the eventual cost only $36 per acre. De la Rue believes in spite of the alleged discovery of existence of some Panama blight and the disinclination of the Standard Fruit Company to make definite commitments in Haiti for the present that a profitable if limited banana development could be started in the Artibonite, the fruit being sold either to the American concerns which are at present buying small quantities of Haitian bananas or marketed through cooperation with the Independent Growers Association of Jamaica. He points out that practically all banana production is from countries which have been affected by the blight. Jamaica now exporting 16,000,000 stems annually has had it for 60 years. In any case he feels that whether or not the Artibonite is to be utilized for banana production it can be profitably planted to long-fiber cotton. De la Rue recommends that he be authorized immediately to approve the Haitian Government’s request for a credit of $100,000 to begin construction of the Artibonite project. His report states that the present Minister of Finance has been attacked and has lost credit with the Government because of his inability to fulfill his promise to start construction on the Artibonite project before the Legislature convenes. He points out that the Minister of Finance is largely responsible for the creditable performance of the Government during the past year as regards financial matters and treaty obligations.

I have telegraphed the above summary of De la Rue’s report as Armour and I concur that it is urgent and desirable that authorization [Page 734] of the $100,000 credit be given without further delay unless the plan envisaged in our previous despatches whereby the President would be able to use the fact of actual construction on the Artibonite project as a lever on the Legislature is to be abandoned. I may say that President Vincent is reliably reported to have informed the Minister of Finance that he would hold him responsible if work on the Artibonite project was not started before the Legislature convenes on April 3. It will be noted that authorization of this initial credit does not automatically engage the Financial Adviser to give immediate approval to requests for further credits to complete the $400,000 project should unexpected fiscal or other developments render delay in the completion of the project desirable. In any case the time element renders it impossible that the project can be completed during the balance of the present fiscal period. The Treasury has already accumulated a surplus over budget estimates of more than $200,000, and except in the event of a decided increase in the depression in Haiti’s foreign markets the Financial Adviser still believes it probable that the budget surplus this year will approach $400,000.

Heath
  1. Copies of the report, transmitted in despatch No. 94, March 17, from the Chargé in Haiti, were received by the Department on March 20; not printed. (838.51/2616)