838.51/2711: Telegram
The Chargé in Haiti (Drew) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:20 p.m.]
106. Article 17, paragraph I, of the Budget and Public Accounting Law of July 4, 1933, which was published in Le Moniteur No. 68, dated August 24, 1933, provides that restitution of customs duties shall be made by the customs service “after authorization”. A similar provision in the Budgetary Law for the fiscal year 1931 and 32, which would have limited the authority of the Receiver General to correct on his own authority any errors occurring in the application of the customs laws, was adjusted through the provisions of paragraph D of the Legation’s note of November 7, 1931, copies of which were transmitted with Despatch No. 261 of November 18, 1931.88 The provisions of the exchange of notes were made applicable to the prorogued Finance Law for the fiscal year 1932 and 33 by an exchange of letters between the Minister of Finance and the Financial Adviser. Pixley89 recommends that we propose an exchange of notes with the Haitian Government following substantially the wording of paragraph D of our note November 7, 1931, in order to permit his office to make necessary restitutions between now and January.
It is also suggested by Pixley that it should be provided in the same exchange of notes that “it is understood that no omissions in the Budget [Page 780] and Public Accounting Law of July 4th, 1933, will be considered as affecting in any way the functions and attributions of the Financial Adviser-General Receiver as defined by the Treaty of September 16, 1915, and the Accords relative thereto”.
I agree with Pixley that it is necessary to reach an agreement with the Haitian Government on these points at the earliest possible moment.
It is requested that the Department authorize me by telegraph to propose to the Minister for Foreign Affairs an exchange of notes as stated above.
- Foreign Relations, 1931, vol. ii, p. 538.↩
- Rex A. Pixley, Deputy Financial Adviser-General Receiver of the Haitian Government.↩