839.51/4642

The Minister in the Dominican Republic (Norweb) to the Secretary of State

No. 438

Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that today for the first time the Dominican Foreign Secretary, Mr. Arturo Despradel, intimated to me that he was aware of the conversations which have been quietly in progress in Washington between Mr. Pastoriza and officers of the Department exploring the basis for a possible revision of the Dominican-American Convention of 1924.

Mr. Despradel brought up the matter with the remark that the exchanges of notes in the spring of 1937 had convinced him that some new line of approach was essential. He said he was disposed to regard that phase of the negotiations as a closed chapter and added that he thought the rejoinder of the Dominican Government to the Department’s last proposals of March 2212 and April 12, 193713 might well be viewed in this light. I observed that I had never seen the rejoinder to which he made reference.

Mr. Despradel said that his Government was by now fully aware of the differences in point of view to be encountered in securing a satisfactory solution of this problem. He said that his Government entertained no hopes of an immediate revision of the Convention but that its policy was one of attempting to examine fundamentally each obstacle to an eventual agreement and to reach an accord piecemeal, point by point, with the Department until the area of difference could be narrowed down until agreement might be really within grasp.

[Page 502]

The Foreign Secretary concluded by saying that in the last analysis he thought that an agreement would be difficult so long as the moral responsibility to the bondholders outweighed the question of policy with regard to the continuance of a special treaty relationship. Mr. Despradel said, “these two points of view are like two horses in a race. Just now the horse which represents your Government’s responsibility to the bondholders is ahead. Until the other horse can catch up with it the race will not be very exciting”.

I have the impression from my conversation with the Foreign Secretary that he at least is disposed to a rational approach to the question of revising the 1924 Convention and that his thought as to the method of negotiation is in accord with the Department’s own view as to how the conversations may best be handled.

Respectfully yours,

R. Henry Norweb
  1. Foreign Relations, 1937, vol. v, p. 453.
  2. Not found in Department files.