Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, The American Republics, Volume V

711.38/296: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti (Mayer)

Washington, March 30, 1939—3 p.m.

28. Your 37, March 23, 11 p.m., and 38, March 24, 10 a.m. Tour two telegrams under reference have been given careful and sympathetic study.

The Department hopes that as a result of the Good Neighbor policy the military and naval forces of the United States will always be cordially welcomed wherever they may go in the American republics. Happily this would now seem to be the case in Haiti. Every facility and courtesy has been afforded our naval forces during recent maneuvers in the neighborhood of Haiti and as you know, the Bay of Gonaives has been found particularly adaptable for certain types of naval training operations. The Navy Department has every intention of continuing its visits to Haiti as long as these visits are welcome.

However, the establishment and maintenance of permanent United States military and naval works on foreign soil would require the negotiation of the proper agreements, and secondly, appropriation of the necessary funds by the Congress. The attendant publicity with its possible repercussions both in the United States and abroad, especially in the other American republics, need scarcely be developed.

After mature consideration, the Department has become convinced that it would not be far-sighted policy for the United States to establish and maintain in times of peace military and naval works in countries where it has not already acquired rights under existing treaties or where strategic considerations are not exigent, and in this latter case only after the negotiation of a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Accordingly the Department feels obliged to request you to discourage this feature of the proposal as presented, although far from perceiving any objection to a formal declaration by the Haitian Government with respect to hemispheric defense amplifying its statement of November 14, 1938,⁵ the Department would welcome such a declaration providing it were couched in general terms. Should the Haitian Government be disposed to make such a declaration, prior consultation regarding its content and form would appear to be highly desirable.

I have every confidence that without offending the sensibilities of the Haitian authorities, you will be able to explain our position. As stated above, it is our hope that through the naval visits made now from time to time a sense of mutual interest will be built up which will be every bit as strong as a written agreement supplemented by the establishment and maintenance of actual military and naval works.

Hull

5. The pertinent paragraph of the note of November 14, 1938, from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Laleau to Mr. Mayer read: “It is with this thought in mind that it is particularly agreeable to thank you for the important documents which you were good enough to communicate to us, and to say that we engage ourselves once more to work in perfect accord with your Government in all that concerns the defense and safeguarding of our Continent, for the maintenance and perpetuation of the high ideal of peace and of Pan American fraternity which constitutes the most beautiful example of humanity and stability which one could offer to a world which seems to have lost its sense of international equilibrium and universal security.”

   The “important documents” mentioned above, were the latest speeches delivered, one by Mr. Cordell Hull and one by Mr. Sumner Welles.

   For the complete text of the note of November 14, 1938, see Haiti, Secretairerie d’Etat des Relations Exterieures, Quelques Faits Diplomatiques (Imprimerie de l’Etat, Rue du Centre, Port-au-Prince, Haiti), p. 62.