839.51/4520
The Dominican Minister ( Pastoriza ) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: When I had the honor to initiate conversations with Your Excellency, in January of this year, together with Minister Henríquez Ureña, towards a complete revision of the 1924 Convention between the Dominican Republic and the United States [Page 462] of America, I was deeply satisfied to hear Your Excellency express the sincere desire of the United States Government, in harmony with the “Good Neighbor” policy, to eliminate the said international instrument, which is the inheritance of the past.
Your Excellency thus confirmed with encouraging words the feeling which had already been expressed in Your Excellency’s note of February 10, 1937, and set forth a fact of vital importance for the progress of such conversations, namely, that however deeply interested the Dominican Republic may be in recovering its full economic sovereignty, at present restricted in several aspects by certain provisions of the said Convention, which was consented to by previous representatives of the Republic at a time when conditions in our life as a nation were different—the interest of the United States Government is just as great toward freeing itself from the embarrassing interference implied by the assistance which it agreed to lend to the Dominican Republic and which at a given moment may have been considered necessary.
It is evident, therefore, that both our Governments coincide in considering the complete revision of the 1924 Convention as vitally essential to our reciprocal advantage, and in particular, the substitution of the machinery which it provides for the service of the Dominican public debt, inasmuch as the Convention and the organization thereby established are an obstacle to the free development of a broad-minded economic policy in the Republic; require the Government to surrender constitutional powers and prerogatives, which is contrary to the spirit and to the letter of the Constitution itself; and result in intervention on the part of the Government of the United States in the internal affairs of the Dominican nation. The Dominican Republic has valued to the extent of its worth, such assistance as has been rendered to it by the United States Government, because that assistance was requested by the Dominican Republic itself at a time now past; but the Dominican Government recognizes that the desire of the Government of the United States to free itself from the obligations and duties which the continuance of such assistance would entail, is fully justified, particularly so because, as a result of a radical change of conditions in our country, such help is no longer required.
Consequently, in accordance with such identical purposes and desires on the part of both Governments, conversations tending to the desired end have taken place at the State Department from January to date, but neither the first draft which we submitted for a proposed Convention, nor a counter-project submitted by the State Department, have permitted reaching an agreement acceptable to both parties; nor do we feel that any additional progress may be made through our suggestion [Page 463] that the various points involved be separated in studying the problem before us, and that each be made the object of a separate convention, for even thus we have not been successful in reaching satisfactory formulae.
The Dominican Republic, in stating its desire to relieve the Government of the United States from the obligation to give assistance, and which it requested and obtained from that Government, is anxious to arrive at definite formulae which will eliminate all intervention on the part of the United States Government in our national economy. The methods thus far studied do not definitely solve the problem, and my Government consequently feels that it is preferable not to continue to take any of the drafts which have been submitted by either party as a basis of negotiation, and proposes to submit new suggestions to the United States Government in the near future, in order to continue the negotiations from a different point of view.
In announcing this intention to Your Excellency for consideration at an early opportunity, I avail myself [etc.]