838.51/3326a
The Assistant Secretary of State (Welles) to the Haitian Minister (Lescot)
Washington, May 18, 1937.
My Dear Mr. Minister: On the occasion of your
visit yesterday you were good enough to leave with me a memorandum of
the principal points of your note of May 8 to your Government which
represent faithfully the concessions which my Govermnent is prepared to
make in order to facilitate and expedite an agreement to liquidate
United States financial control in Haiti.
With regard to your other memorandum containing the points of view of Mr.
Leger as set forth in his note to you of May 12, 1937, I have given it
my personal attention and submit for your and his further consideration
an informal memorandum in reply.
With warm personal regards, believe me,
Yours sincerely,
[Enclosure]
The Department of
State to the Haitian
Legation
Memorandum
- 1.
- The Government of the United States on its part is disposed to
consider favorably any reasonable plan for the liquidation of
United States financial control in Haiti, whether upon the basis
of the transfer to the National Bank of Haiti of the services
now performed by the Office of the Fiscal Representative or upon
any other acceptable basis.
[Page 538]
This Government believes, however, that
the plan which it has proposed to the Haitian Government on
November 18, 1936,26 as modified by the
note and documents delivered on December 23, 1936,27 is the only one which
has so far been advanced that satisfactorily safeguards the
rights of the bondholders of the 1922 loan and thus permits this
Government to agree to the termination of the present system of
financial control in Haiti.
- 2.
- The Government of the United States does not share the opinion
of the Haitian Government that the proposed transfer to the
National Bank of Haiti of the services now performed by the
Fiscal Representative would partially disorganize the financial
administration of Haiti. This Government desires to point out
that the duties of the proposed “Service of Control of Receipts
and Expenditures of the Republic” as outlined in the documents
accompanying Mr. Leger’s note of November 26, 1936,28 would
appear in part to be already carried out at present by the
Haitian Ministry of Finance while other duties parallel those
which admittedly must be performed by the proposed Government
side of the National Bank even according to Mr. Leger’s plan,
and thus constitute triplication of effort in some instances.
This Government would be greatly pleased to see the present
organization of the Ministry of Finance, or of whatever office
the Haitian Government may designate, gradually trained and
developed to the point when, upon the retirement of the 1922
loans, it should be a simple process to amalgamate the remaining
personnel of the Government side of the Bank with that of the
Haitian financial administration and form one sole financial
service.
Washington, May 18, 1937.
