838.51/3363: Telegram
The Chargé in Haiti (Finley) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:05 p.m.]
31. Department’s air mail instruction June 17. The Department’s observations with respect to the Haitian Government’s note of May [Page 546] 31, 1937 were communicated to Leger this morning. He said that he was pleased that discussion of the details of the organization of the Government side of the bank could now proceed between de la Rue and himself. He thought something could be worked out. The points of view of the two Governments were not far apart and he stated very plainly that he does not consider the question of the cost of the organization as important as that of its kind. What he really wanted was physically to retain the services now performed by the fiscal representative’s office in the Ministry of Finance where he thought they belonged. These services he believed could be Haitianized just as in the case of the Garde by duplicating personnel during the training period. He wished to see installed in the bank only such control officers as would protect the interests of the bondholders. Discussions with de la Rue would begin as soon as the latter returned unless of course there was some new prospect of a refunding loan in which case they would not be necessary.
Proceeding then to the question of acquisition of the possible loan he told me of Bogdan’s prospective arrival today and repeated that the Haitian Government was under no obligation to Schroder but would of course examine any plan that Bogdan had to offer. He said he was not interested in German marks and he also made a point of saying that, following Bogdan’s visit to France this summer, he thought the latter might propose some sort of scheme which would link up a loan with the question of the 1910 bonds. This, he said, he would not tolerate. The two were entirely separate propositions. He would keep me informed as to any developments which might take place.
Coming next to the French commercial convention he said that he personally through a third party and not on behalf of the Haitian Government had told the French that he might be willing to adjust the 1910 loan question on the basis of the payment of francs 10 million over a 15-year period.35 I understood him to say that he would not go beyond that figure. The French were apparently holding up the convention because they did not think this adequate. He was very anxious on the other hand to conclude the convention because there were good prospects for a large coffee crop and because they would need the French market this year. In reply to my question he again said that while the conclusion of the convention was not explicitly bound up with the 1910 loan settlement, he naturally would feel a moral obligation in case the convention were signed to settle the 1910 question.