839.51/4724
The Chief of Staff of the Dominican Army ( Trujillo ) to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: I wish to express my deepest appreciation for all your courtesies during my brief sojourn in Washington. I am most obliged for the friendliness of your reception and for the courtesies shown me by members of Congress and Government officials and by my good friends the officers of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
May I be permitted to reiterate to you at this time what I had occasion to say personally at the White House. The people and the Government of the Dominican Republic are pledged to the aims of continental solidarity that you so ably personify; they have set for themselves an unwavering course of cooperation in this field, and, however modest their contribution may be, none could be more sincere and definite.
May I be allowed to avail myself of this opportunity to call your friendly and personal attention to the only point that disturbs the normality of relations between our two countries. The United States [Page 583] and the Dominican Republic are bound by a treaty, a product of circumstances and times, that is out of harmony with present trends, whereby our customs are under the control of American officials.
That accord had as its purpose to add to the already sufficient guaranty of the American Government for our loans, a machinery for the direct collection of custom funds which would ensure the punctuality of the payments.
Our Government has loyally complied with the terms of the pact, however much it may hurt its feelings, and it believes that its immaculate record of eight years of the wisest and most responsible management of public interests and strict discharge of international obligations warrant the revision of a statute that was enacted under circumstances that no longer exist.
We know that the Government of the United States is as much interested as the Dominican Government in putting an end to a situation that can hardly be reconciled with the new continental spirit. However, it has occurred to me that, instead of undertaking the tiresome negotiation of a new treaty through ordinary channels, where a certain amount of friction is always bound to appear when questions affecting the sovereignty of a nation are discussed, you, Mr. President, could solve the problem in an equitable and exemplary manner that would take nothing from the guarantee given for the loans, behind which stand both the American and the Dominican Governments. Complicated administrative and legislative tramitation could thus be spared, and the Dominican people could have the moral satisfaction to which they aspire.
May I suggest that you could appoint as General Receiver of Dominican Customs a citizen of my country, or else leave that post unfilled, thereby giving our Government the opportunity of exercising its own authority and appointing the new official itself. In no way are these suggestions, I think, in conflict with the treaty.
Article I of the pact that rules this question says: “That the President of the United States shall appoint a General Receiver of Dominican Customs who, with such Assistant Receivers and other employees of the Receivership as shall be appointed by the President of the United States in his discretion, shall collect all the customs duties accruing at the several custom houses of the Dominican Republic until the payment or retirement of any and all bonds issued by the Dominican Government in accordance with the plan and under the limitations as to terms and amounts hereinbefore recited” et cetera.
A gesture, as the one suggested, on your part, Mr. President, would be received by the Dominican Government with unprecedented jubilation and gratitude. Such [would] be an ample, generous and frank solution, taken in the spirit in which you wish the relations between our peoples to be conducted; and, furthermore, it would detract nothing from the rest of the obligations contracted through the treaty.
[Page 584]Among these obligations, the study of which could be the subject of further negotiations, there is one which prevents the Dominican Government from revising its tariff. You can imagine what such a clause, in force for over a third of a century, must have meant to my country. In times of violent economic and political upheaval, both internal and international, in which all the nations of the world have had to revise their standards of production and interchange, together with their revenue systems, one of the mainsprings of which is the customs, the Dominican Republic has been prevented from taking any steps in this direction because of that treaty clause.
This clause has acted as a fetter to government action when this action was most needed to consolidate the process of political and economic restoration from which my country is now successfully emerging.
Please be good enough, Mr. President, to forgive me for bringing this matter to your attention while you are so busily engaged with other problems. I have been encouraged to do it because of the kindness and friendship with which you honored me and because of the affectionate interest with which you have invariably faced all questions concerning Latin America.
Accept [etc.]