839.51/4591
The Minister in the Dominican Republic (Norweb) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 15.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instruction No. 52 of March 8, 1938 (File No. 839.51/4588), requesting me to make known to Lic. Ortega Frier, the Dominican Foreign Secretary, the Department’s view that it would be easier and more satisfactory for the discussion of any Dominican proposals with regard to revision of the 1924 Convention between the United States and the Dominican Republic to take place in Washington rather than in Ciudad Trujillo.
I imparted the view of the Department in this respect to the Foreign Secretary this morning who expressed disappointment again and referred to his President’s wish that the conversations to be initiated here and brought to a stage where final agreement at least should be in sight before his forthcoming resignation as Foreign Secretary.
It was apparently the view of both President Trujillo and Mr. Ortega Frier that it was preferable not to work through Minister Pastoriza in Washington, although this view implied no lack of confidence in their representative, a fact borne out by the return of Mr. Pastoriza to Washington with a considerable increase in salary. The opinions of the Foreign Secretary and the President, which seem strongly held, apparently are based on a conviction that Mr. Pastoriza in presenting his various formulas has laid emphasis more on details than upon basic principles. Mr. Ortega this morning said that he wished to initiate conversations based on two considerations; the first, that the abrogation of the 1924 Convention was desirable as the Convention is now an anachronism, conforming neither with American foreign policy nor with the general principles of constitutional and international law. Secondly, the Foreign Secretary thought it would be helpful to recognize at the outset that the Receivership in some form or another was an efficient means of guaranteeing the Dominican Government’s obligations to the bondholders and that, whereas [Page 496] previous Dominican proposals had envisaged substantial modification or even the termination of the Receivership with the Convention, Mr. Ortega thought that it should be retained.
Mr. Ortega said that when his Minister returned to Washington next week he would communicate with the Department his view in respect of the place where preparatory conversations should be held.
Respectfully yours,