Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1935, The American Republics, Volume IV

611.3831/104: Telegram

The Minister in Haiti (Armour) to the Secretary of State

Port-au-Prince, January 3, 1935—1 p.m.
[Received 3:30 p.m.]

1. For Welles.² Pixley³ and I have had further talks with Hibbert⁴ and I have conveyed to him the contents of the Department’s telegram No. 100, December 31, 3 p.m.⁵

He informs us that Blanchet⁶ is being instructed to assure you and the Secretary that the Haitian Government has no intention of repudiating or doing anything to reverse the Montevideo commitments.⁷ His position is based solely on loss of revenue which he feels would endanger the budget. Furthermore, the French and Italians who take the bulk of Haitian coffee have notified the Haitian Government of their intention to negotiate new treaties and Hibbert fears that if reductions proposed by the United States which takes so little from Haiti are accepted aside from losses mentioned it would serve as a dangerous precedent for these countries which are not bound by Montevideo commitments and which are frankly advocates of the “donnant donnant” principle.

Armour

2. Sumner Welles, Assistant Secretary of State.
3. Rex A. Pixley, Deputy Fiscal Representative of the Haitian Government.
4. Lucien Hibbert, Haitian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
5. Foreign Relations, 1934, vol. v, p. 332.
6. Albert Blanchet, Haitian Minister in the United States.
7. Resolution V, Economic, Commercial, and Tariff Policy, approved December 16, 1933, Report of the Delegates of the United States of America to the Seventh International Conference of American States, Montevideo, Uruguay, December 3–26, 1933 (Washington, 1934), pp. 196–198.