838.51/3149: Telegram

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

13. Your No. 25, May 25, 4 p.m. The Department has consistently maintained that the Haitian Government is not obligated to pay its 5 percent loan of 1910 in gold francs, and has not been disposed to advise the Haitian Government to agree to submit to arbitration the question of any such obligation alleged to rest upon the Haitian Government. Consequently the Department is not now disposed to advise the Haitian Government to submit the matter to the Permanent Court, but while the Department realizes the beneficial effect which a settlement in favor of Haiti would have, it must leave it to the Haitian Government’s own decision whether it will accede to the desire of the French that the Permanent Court pass upon the matter.

Hull