838.51/3348
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Haiti (Finley)
Sir: The Department refers to Mr. Gordon’s despatch No. 499 of June 2, transmitting a copy of a note from the Haitian Minister for Foreign Affairs dated May 31, 1937, which purported to answer the Legation’s note and accompanying documents of December 21, 1936.
You are requested to call on the Haitian Minister for Foreign Affairs at your early convenience and to make certain observations which are set forth below in reply to the note of May 31, 1937, leaving an aide-mémoire of your remarks.
You may say that the Government of the United States has examined attentively the Minister’s note of May 31, 1937, but regrets to say that in its opinion the statements of the Minister appear to indicate [Page 545] that the points of view of the two governments seem to be no closer together than was the case some months ago.
The Government of the United States does not feel that to attempt to reply point by point to the arguments raised by the Minister would be profitable to either government, although it cannot let pass unanswered the statement contained in the seventh paragraph of the Minister’s note. The Government of the United States feels sure that upon mature reflection, the Minister will agree that the assertion of the Haitian Government that the new texts proposed by the Government of the United States “constitute an aggravation and an extension of the already large rights of control which the Haitian Government had agreed to give to the bondholders and which were agreed to by your Government” is far from “indisputable (indiscutable).”
The Government of the United States is convinced for its part that it should be possible without serious difficulty to elaborate a plan satisfactory to both governments for the termination of United States financial control in Haiti, based upon the documents which it has already submitted to the Haitian Government. More specifically, the Government of the United States desires to advance the earnest suggestion that upon Mr. de la Sue’s return to Haiti in the immediate future his services be availed of by the Haitian Government to elaborate with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and for Finance a plan for the organization of the fiscal or Government side of the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti. The Government of the United States recalls in this connection that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and for Finance has himself several times advanced the opinion that such a course was the most logical one to follow, and Mr. de la Rue has on his part expressed his readiness to cooperate with Mr. Léger in every way possible to develop such a plan step by step, in the hope of reaching a solution satisfactory to both governments and adequately safeguarding the rights of the bondholders of the 1922 loans.
Very truly yours,