[Enclosure]
Draft of Note To Be Presented to the Dominican
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Bonetti
Burgos)
I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that I have duly informed
my Government of the enactment of Law No. 1096, of April 29, 1936,
providing a method for the payment of the floating debt of the
Dominican Republic and authorizing the transfer for irrigation
purposes of $225,000 from the $600,000 appropriated in the 1936
Dominican budget for the payment of floating debt claims.
My Government has now instructed me to bring to Your Excellency’s
attention for the friendly consideration of Your Excellency’s
Government the following comments and observations with respect to
the floating debt situation and the Law of April 29, 1936.
Since the period preceding the enactment of the Dominican Emergency
Law of October 1931, the Government of the United States has given
sympathetic consideration and recognition of the difficulties
encountered by the Dominican Government, and as a consequence not
only refrained at the time the Emergency Law was enacted from
invoking the convention of 1924, but thereafter refrained from any
representation in respect to the floating debt, although the
Government of the United States had noted the Dominican Government’s
formal assurances at the time of the enactment of the Emergency Law
regarding its intention of liquidating that debt. Subsequently the
Government of the United States maintained a very considerate
attitude during the period which culminated in the agreement made
with respect to the external funded debt with the Foreign
Bondholders Protective Council, Incorporated, in August 1934. The
Government of the United States has observed the expansion of the
Dominican Government’s income and its disbursements in recent years
for Governmental purposes. With these considerations in view the
Government [Page 465] of the United
States desires to bring now to the attention of the Dominican
Government, in the most friendly manner, the question of the
liquidation of the floating debt, particularly in view of the
enactment of the Law of April 29, 1936. In view of the passage of
this law, which is obviously intended to liquidate the floating
debt, my Government ventures to inquire regarding the period of time
within which the Dominican Government now expects to be able to
liquidate the floating debt.
In this relation my Government wishes to make the following
observations with respect to those features of the Law of April 29,
1936, providing for the submission of claims and the payment
thereof. My Government is unable to perceive that the plan
contemplated by the Law of April 29, 1936, offers substantial
benefits to claimants and considers that, on the other hand, it
subjects them to the disadvantage of a probable reduction in their
claims by a considerable amount and the further disadvantage of the
delay and expense involved in submitting evidence to support the
claims which at least in some cases and probably in many cases has
heretofore been submitted to the Dominican Government, and,
therefore, may not now be available to claimants. The official
notice by the Treasury Department dated May 8, 1936, requires that
claims be submitted within 180 days and provides that any claims not
presented within that period will not be admitted. It would seem
that this requirement might be interpreted as designed to bar from
payment claims not so presented. At any rate it clearly appears that
it is designed to bar such claims from the advantages, if any, of
the plan contemplated by the Law.
In view of the foregoing, my Government desires me to state in all
frankness that, at least with respect to claims which have already
been liquidated by the issuance of certificates or “analyses”, it
will not regard failure on the part of an American claimant to
submit his claim to the Dominican Government under the Law in
question as changing in any way the attitude of his Government with
respect to the claim, or as altering the international
responsibility of the Dominican Government to deal with such claim
without exercising discrimination against it.
With respect to the transfer of funds for irrigation purposes, my
Government has also instructed me to call to the attention of the
Dominican Government the repeated assurances given this Legation
that at least certain floating debt claims of American citizens
would be properly provided for and to express to Your Excellency the
assumption of my Government that the transfer of the funds in
question will in no way interfere with or delay payment of just
debts now due American claimants. My Government would appreciate
confirmation of this assumption, and also the comment of Your
Excellency’s Government with respect to the observations set forth
hereinabove.