839.1541/33
The Minister in the Dominican Republic (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 18.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s airmail instruction No. 397 of February 4, 1936 (File No. 839.1541/32),27 instructing me to discuss with the Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs28 in the sense directed the contract signed last October between the Dominican Government and the United States Steel Products Company for the erection of certain steel bridges in this country.
I beg leave to report that, the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs having been absent from Santo Domingo,29 I was not able until today to comply with the Department’s instruction, but that I spoke to him today as instructed and left with him a memorandum of my oral statement, of which a copy is enclosed.30
The Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs said that in his opinion the Dominican Government might consent to notify future arrangements involving the obligations of this Government under Article III of the Convention of 1924,31 in advance of the conclusion of such arrangements, to the American Legation in Santo Domingo, which he [Page 436] thought might be regarded as compliance with Article III of the Convention.
The Acting Minister, however, did not definitely undertake so to engage the Government and I gathered the matter will be discussed with the President of the Republic before even such a limited engagement is made.
Meanwhile, it has been announced in the local press that the bridge over the Camú River, one of the bridges mentioned in the contract under reference, is to be officially inaugurated on February 16 next.
Respectfully yours,