839.51/4042: Telegram

The Minister in the Dominican Republic (Schoenfeld) to the Acting Secretary of State

2. I spoke to the Minister of Foreign Affairs this morning in the sense of the Department’s telegram No. 2, January 13, 4 p.m., and left with him a memorandum of my oral statement. Minister of Foreign Affairs informed me that Dominican Government would probably send to the United States in the near future Undersecretary of Finance Nicolas Vega and Fred Q. Rickard, internal revenue adviser, to begin negotiations with the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council. The Minister indicated also that the Executive power would probably remit to receiver for amortization under article 6–D of the Emergency Law at least substantial portion of the surplus in Emergency Fund. The Minister said he would probably send me a note in the near future clarifying the position of the Dominican Government in order that all concerned might be reassured of the Government’s good intentions. He concluded by assuring me that none of the statements made to him on behalf of the Department this morning were “disagreeable” to the Dominican Government and said he would lose no time in communicating the substance of my informal representation to the President of the Dominican Republic who is now at Santiago.

I believe the informal statements which were made to the Minister this morning will have a very wholesome effect upon the Dominican [Page 194] Government’s policy hereafter in that the position of our Government in relation to the financial situation here will be more precisely understood than it seems recently to have been.

Schoenfeld