339.115 General Motors Export Co./131: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in the Dominican Republic (Schoenfeld)
25. For your information. At my request the Dominican Minister called this morning and I spent an hour going over with him the situation caused by the nature of the treatment accorded certain American nationals and certain American interests in recent months by the authorities of the Dominican Republic.
I expressed my surprise, disappointment and concern that such acts had been permitted to occur and I handed the Minister a memorandum17 furnishing instances of these acts. I also mentioned the Barletta case and said I deplored the fact that treatment such as this consular officer of a European Government received in the Dominican Republic must inevitably tend to discredit the Pan American community in the eyes of other countries. I said that obviously the Italian Government could not permit such an affront to go unchallenged and that that Government might well resort to drastic measures, in which case the Dominican Government could hardly expect any sympathy from the United States or the other American nations. Finally, I expressed the hope that the Dominican Government would no longer lag behind in the effort in which every one of the other American states are loyally working and cooperating, an effort to improve and strengthen the position and international repute of the family of American nations, an effort based naturally on fair play towards all other countries and respect for obligations of international law.
The Minister said that he intended to leave shortly for Santo Domingo to discuss these matters with President Trujillo.
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