Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1937, The American Republics, Volume V

839.51/4489a

The Secretary of State to the Dominican Minister (Pastoriza)

Washington, February 10, 1937.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of January 23,¹ in which you inform me that you have been intrusted, together with Dr. Max Henriquez Ureña,² with the initiation of conversations looking to the concerting of a commercial understanding between the Dominican Republic and this country and with a revision of the Convention concluded in 1924.³

As no doubt you will recall, this Government has on more than one occasion indicated to the Dominican Government informally that it would be glad to give the most favorable consideration to any concrete proposal advanced to it by the Dominican Government looking towards a revision of the 1924 Convention.

There is little need for me to remind you of the fact which I feel sure every Dominican realizes, that the loans obtained by the Dominican Government since 1907 have been rendered possible on comparatively easy terms primarily because of the commitments undertaken by the United States. Dominican Government bonds have been purchased by nationals of the United States as well as by nationals of other countries because of the terms of the Convention, and consequently, this Government owes these bondholders a very definite responsibility, so that it cannot agree to abrogate the treaty unless the legitimate rights of the bondholders are fully respected.

The Government of the United States believes that it has with increasing frequency in recent years amply demonstrated its regard and sympathy towards legitimate Dominican aspirations. As an instance of this, I might mention the considerate attitude of this Government concerning the emergency plan adopted in 1933.⁴ The United States has consistently refrained, in all cases where it did not consider that the interests of the bondholders might be prejudiced thereby, from the strict and legalistic interpretation upon which it might well have insisted of the terms of the Convention of 1924. Provided these acquired interests of the bondholders are respected, this Government has no interest in continuing the present provisions of the Convention of 1924, nor the general receivership as a treaty entity. On the contrary, in accordance with its determined policy of refraining from any form of activity involving participation by it, even through treaty right, in the domestic concerns of the other American republics, the Government of the United States would welcome the opportunity, upon the basis above stated, of relinquishing the obligations which it assumed under the terms of the Convention of 1924.

Likewise, as respects the negotiation of a commercial understanding, I am glad to assure you that this Government will be most happy to examine the question anew in a spirit of friendly and frank understanding. I should be lacking in candor, were I not to remind you in this regard, that the American Government has been concerned at the apparent delay of the Dominican Government in extending full most-favored-nation treatment on the basis of the existing Modus Vivendi of 1924,⁵ to American products similar in character to those products of French firms listed in Annex B of the Modus Vivendi forming part of the recently concluded Franco-Dominican trade convention.⁶

This Government has been disappointed at the apparent inconsistency of this recent attitude of the Dominican Government as contrasted with its support of the resolution advocating more liberal and non-discriminatory tariff policies adopted at the Seventh International Conference of American States at Montevideo in 1933,⁷ and reaffirmed and amplified in two resolutions at the recent Inter-American Conference at Buenos Aires.⁸ You will appreciate further that, before considering the negotiation of a new commercial agreement with the Dominican Republic, this Government necessarily feels that its unquestioned right to receive most-favored-nation treatment as respects United States products imported into the Dominican Republic pledged in the Modus Vivendi of 1924, should first be honored.

I shall, of course, be glad to receive you and your colleague, Señor Henriquez Ureña, at any time, and I have to suggest that you need only to confirm an appointment with my office by telephone. At the same time, I venture to propound to you that little progress can be made as respects the negotiations envisaged until the Dominican Government has prepared the concrete proposal mentioned above which I desire to reiterate will receive my earnest consideration.

Accept [etc.]

Cordell Hull

1. Not printed.
2. Dominican Minister to Great Britain.
3. Signed December 27, 1924, Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, p. 662.
4. See ibid., 1933, vol. v, pp. 589 ff.
5. Exchange of notes, September 25, 1924, Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, pp. 667–670.
6. Signed September 4, 1936, France, Journal Officiel, September 30, 1936, p. 10298.
7. Resolution V, Economic, Commercial, and Tariff Policy, 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, Government Printing Office, 1934), p. 196.
8. Resolution XLIV, Equality of Treatment in International Trade, and Resolution XLVI, Restrictions on International Trade, Report of the Delegation of the United States of America to the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 1–23, 1936 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1937), pp. 240 and 242.