738.39/101: Telegram

President Roosevelt to the President of Haiti (Vincent)

Great and Good Friend: I have received Your Excellency’s telegram dated November 12,1 advising me that a situation of tension has unhappily arisen between Your Excellency’s Government and that of the Dominican Republic to the prejudice of the present interests of the two peoples and to the harmony of their future friendship. Your Excellency states that, inspired by the spirit of friendship and solidarity advocated by the inter-American agreements concluded in the interest of the maintenance of peace between the peoples of this hemisphere, you request the good offices of the Government of the United States in aiding in a just and prompt solution of the difference now existing between the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Your Excellency further advises me that you are making the same request of the Presidents of Cuba and of Mexico in the hope that they may be associated with the Government of the United States in this work of justice and of humanity.

I have learned with profound regret of the controversy which has unfortunately arisen between our sister republics of Haiti and of the Dominican Republic. The Government of the United States possesses no more sincere hope than that the maintenance of peace between the American Republics may be firmly assured and that the friendship and understanding between them may be constantly enhanced. In the hope that it may thereby promote that ideal, the Government of the United States stands ready to join in extending its friendly services in an effort to further the attainment of a pacific solution of the present controversy, satisfactory to both parties thereto, and in the event that these good offices likewise prove acceptable to the Government of the Dominican Republic, it will be happy, jointly with the Governments of Cuba and of Mexico, to tender its good offices to Your Excellency’s Government and to the Government of the Dominican Republic.

I avail myself [etc.]

Franklin D. Roosevelt
  1. Not printed.