File No. 839.00/1324.
The Secretary of State to Minister Smith.
Washington, June 18, 1914, 2 p.m.
Your June 12, 6 p.m. and June 16, 6 p.m., and in view of cable-graphic advices received by Department from the American Legation, Santo Domingo, in the premises, you are instructed to call immediately upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs and present to him the following statement, leaving with him a paraphrase thereof.
The Government of the United States is convinced from evidence received by the Department of State that the Haitian authorities are aiding the revolutionists in the Dominican Republic by sending across the Dominican-Haitian frontier quantities of arms and ammunition destined for the use of those in [Page 239] revolt against the Government of Santo Domingo. This action on the part of the authorities of the Haitian Government is considered by the Department of State as an unfriendly act toward the constituted government of Santo Domingo, and as exceedingly Offensive to the Government of the United States, in view of the interest which that Government has in aiding in the proper collection of the customs in Santo Domingo since these munitions of war have been smuggled across the frontier in violation of the customs regulations of Santo Domingo.
The Department is very much surprised at this attitude of the Haitian authorities, particularly on account of the protestations made by President Zamor to the American representative at Port au Prince on May 9th last.
The Government of the United States, in order that there may be no misconception of its attitude by the Government of Haiti in this matter, desires to state that unless the Haitian authorities immediately desist from the shipment across the frontier of munitions of war for the use of Dominican revolutionists or from aiding and abetting these revolutionists or their agents in sending such shipments across the border, the Government of the United States will be forced to consider what steps it will be necessary for it to take for the prevention of further infringement upon the customs regulations above mentioned.