811.20 Defense (M)/7–144: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Haiti (Wilson)
246. Reference Department’s instruction no. 25, June 28, 1944.17 The Department has requested the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to assist the Haitian Government if that Government so desires to replant former Cryptostegia lands in money or subsistence crops, up to a limit of approximately $300,000 within the following framework:
- 1.
- If requested by the Haitian Government after being generally informed of what is under consideration, CIAA18 to make, in consultation with the American Embassy at Port-au-Prince and the [Page 1174] appropriate Haitian authorities, a thorough investigation as to the exact nature of the program needed in that country (it is understood CIAA is assigning Messrs. Vance Rogers and Bernard Bell of its staff to undertake this investigation, which should not take more than one month. Messrs. Rogers and Bell will arrive in Haiti shortly.);
- 2.
- Such assistance as may be granted on the basis of this report to be confined to assistance in kind (seed, fertilizer, tools, et cetera) and to such cash contributions as may be necessary to meet the salaries of Haitian technicians employed by the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture;
- 3.
- The program to be carried out through the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture; and
- 4.
- CIAA to limit its activities to lending assistance and advice and maintaining supervisory control over the disposition of the resources to be made available to the Ministry of Agriculture.
You are instructed, at your discretion, to inform the Haitian Foreign Office only of point 1 above, emphasizing that any program of assistance that may be extended to Haiti would be based on the recommendations of the CIAA representatives shortly to visit that country and that the details of such a program would be agreed upon by the two Governments after the CIAA investigation.
Additional information being forwarded by instruction.