File 838.51/526a

The Secretary of State to the Minister of Haiti 5

I have had the pleasure to receive a copy of the agreement which, as a result of the good offices that the Department of State has been happy to lend in this connection, has been entered into this day between yourself and Messers. Pierre Hudicourt and Auguste Magloire as members of the Haitian Commission, and Messrs. Maurice Casenave and R. L. Farnham on behalf of the National Bank of Haiti, regarding the adjustment of the differences that have heretofore existed between the Haitian Government and the said Bank.

I have noted that the concluding paragraph of Article IV of the said agreement reads, translated, as follows:

The Bank’s commission bearing on the sums that the Receiver General is to collect, receive and apply, shall be included in the expenses of the Receiver General’s office referred to in Article VI of the American-Haitian Convention of September 16, 1915.

In view of the relation that this clause bears to Article VI of the aforesaid Convention, the Government of the United States, in case the residue of the five per centum of the collections and receipts from customs duties of the Republic of Haiti, after paying the expenses of the receivership, including salaries and allowances of the General Receiver, his assistants and employees, and the salary and expenses of the Financial Adviser, should in any year be insufficient to defray in full the commission of the bank upon the sums incident to the collection, receipt and application of such customs duties, will endeavor to reach with the Government of Haiti a mutually satisfactory agreement thereon, as provided in the above-mentioned Article VI of the convention.

Accept [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. Mutatis mutandis to the President of the Banque de la République d’ Haiti.