839.51/11–244
The Ambassador in the Dominican Republic (Briggs) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 10.]
Sir: With reference to my telegram no. 464 of October 24, 1944, 4 p.m. regarding the proposed loan from the Chase National Bank to the Dominican Government, I have the honor to inform the Department that in a conversation with President Trujillo on October 25 I had the opportunity to refer to the favorable financial position of the Dominican Government. I told him that I understood from Mr. Newman that the surplus might amount to as much as $5,000,000, which prompted me to express my congratulations, and in view of his announced interest in retiring the Dominican Foreign debt, to inquire as to the progress of the negotiations undertaken by the Secretary of the Treasury, Señor Troncoso, in New York. The President informed me that the negotiations were “going extremely well” and that he had just had a telephone conversation with Señor Troncoso who expected to return to the Dominican Republic in the immediate future to report in detail. He added when he had received detailed information he would inform me thereof since it is his desire that our Government be fully informed.
On October 28 I received a call from Mr. Edwin I. Kilbourne, the local representative of the West Indies Sugar Company, in which he gave me in confidence certain further details regarding the progress of the loan. A copy of the memorandum of my conversation with him [Page 1031] is enclosed.35 It will be noted that a syndicate of banks headed by the Chase National Bank is prepared to make a loan to the Dominican Government in the amount of approximately $5,000,000 at 3½% interest. According to Mr. Kilbourne, the banks will be repaid in the amount of $1,250,000 annually over a period of five years. This amount is to be obtained from the taxes due to the Dominican Government from the sugar companies, and an agreement has apparently been reached whereby the parent companies in the United States will make the payment to the Chase National Bank.
It is anticipated that this loan, together with the other means at its disposal, may be sufficient to permit the Dominican Government to retire its present external debt.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩