838.51/3483: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti ( Mayer )
59. Your 115, November 16, 1 p.m. Solely for your background information, the Department transmits to you the text of two telegrams received from the Embassy in Paris sent in reply to an instruction to obtain such information as might be possible with regard to the reported French negotiations for a loan to Haiti. The telegrams are as follows:
(Here quote 1602, November 13, 6 p.m., and 1617, November 17, 2 p.m., from Paris).44
The contents of these telegrams have been made available to de la Rue who presumably will inform Pixley.
[Page 555]When Leger informed me of the pending negotiations with French interests, I stated to him that the matter was one, of course, solely for determination by the Haitian Government; that I assumed, of course, that the Haitian Government would enter into no loan contract which could in any sense be construed as counter to the prior interests of United States bondholders, nor which would in any way involve political influence in Haiti on the part of European interests, nor which in a general sense would be prejudicial to the best interests of the Haitian people. I added that I knew of the repeated efforts made by the Haitian Government to obtain financial accommodation in the United States and that in view of the failure up to date of these efforts, I recognized the legitimate desire of the Government of Haiti to turn to other sources for such accommodation. I concluded by saying that I trusted that any negotiations which might be consummated would be satisfactory to the Haitian Government and to the best interests of the Haitian people.
- Telegrams not printed. Ambassador Bullitt reported inquiries at the French Treasury, Foreign Office, and Bank of France which indicated that neither the Government nor the Bank had been approached by the firm of Lajoinie in regard to the Haitian project. (838.51/3482, 3484)↩