838.51/980

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti ( Bailly-Blanchard )

No. 352

Sir: You are informed that the Department has recently concluded an arrangement with the War Department whereby the [Page 809] Bureau of Insular Affairs is to undertake the immediate supervision and control of the Haitian Customs Receivership and the auditing of its accounts on behalf of the United States, in a manner similar to the supervision and control exercised by that Bureau over the Dominican Customs Receivership.

For your further information, a copy of the Department’s letter to the Secretary of War dated September 21, 1920, and of the reply of the Secretary of War dated September 24, 1920 is enclosed herein.42

General McIntyre, the Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, is leaving on his annual inspection trip of the Dominican Customs Receivership on the 7th instant and pursuant to the arrangement made with the War Department, he will include Haiti in his itinerary, going direct to Port au Prince. It is the intention of General McIntyre, for the information of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, to investigate the system whereby the Haitian Customs are at present administered, and to draw up a report upon the administration of Customs, including such recommendations for changes in the present system as may in his opinion, and in the opinion of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, be deemed necessary. The Department is in particular favorably disposed to recommend that the Bureau of Insular Affairs provide for the formation of a Customs Board in Port au Prince similar to that now functioning in Santo Domingo, the duty of such a Board to be to pass upon protests of importers against the rulings of the Receiver General.

The Department has been in no way dissatisfied with the most excellent administration of the Haitian Customs by the present Receiver General. It believes, however, that it is advisable, both in the interest of the efficiency of the Customs service and in the interest of the Receiver General himself, that the Customs Receivership in Haiti be subject as it is in Santo Domingo to the direct supervision of the Bureau of Insular Affairs. The Department trusts that General McIntyre will be rendered every facility for inspection and observation of the present working of the Customs administration during his approaching visit to Haiti, and desires that the Legation and the Treaty Officials assist and cooperate with him in every way possible.

You will please transmit copies of this despatch and of its enclosures to the General Receiver and the Financial Advisor for their information and guidance.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
Norman H. Davis
  1. Neither printed.