838.51/4149: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Haiti (Sparks)

35. Legation’s 31 [20] of February 6 and your telephone conversation with Finley, February 6, regarding postponement of the payment of one-third the interest on Haitian bonds.

The Department believes that it would be desirable for the Haitian Government to formalize its desire for a postponement in a note addressed to you which would set forth the circumstances, enclose copies of correspondence which has passed between the Haitian Government and the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council, and suggest that the two Governments reach an accord modifying the Accord of 1933 so far as to permit the Fiscal Representative to postpone the remittance to the Fiscal Agents of one-third the interest due on the April 1 and October 1, 1941 coupons.

The Department will telegraph you the text of the proposed accord at an early date.

Since the Department, in the interest of the credit of the Haitian Government, attaches considerable importance to the terms by which the conclusion of this accord is announced to the public, it will also forward you the text of a proposed press release which could be given out simultaneously in Haiti and in this country after the signing of the accord.

Please inform the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Finance to this effect and say that the Department confidently trusts that the Haitian Government will be willing to withhold publicity concerning this postponement until the text and the time of the press release has been mutually agreed upon between the two Governments.

Hull