438.00/113: Telegram

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

75. Your 61 September 4, 5 p.m.92 and 62 September 8, noon.93

In the opinion of the Department it is clearly contemplated in the Protocol94 that all pecuniary claims against Haiti except those enumerated in Article III are to be submitted to the Claims Commission. The Protocol still being in full force and effect it would not therefore be proper for the payments suggested by the Financial Adviser to be made at this time.

In this connection the Department wishes a full report by mail as to the extent to which the action contemplated in Article II of the Treaty95 providing that the Financial Adviser shall inquire into the validity of the debts of the Republic and in Article IV of the Treaty has been taken and in case these provisions have not been fully carried out to report your opinion and that of the Financial Adviser as to the desirability of immediately taking such action.

The Department is sending you by mail an instruction dated September 996 outlining a plan with reference to the payment of the debt service which it is believed will make evident to the Haitian Government the desirability of the early functioning of the Claims Commission in order to hasten the time when its awards will become an admitted part of the public debt of Haiti entitled to the priority payment provided for in Article V of the Treaty.

Colby
  1. Ante, p. 839.
  2. Not printed.
  3. For text of protocol of Oct. 3, 1919, see Foreign Relations, 1919, vol. ii, p. 347.
  4. For text of treaty of Sept. 16, 1915, see ibid., 1916, p. 328.
  5. Ante, p. 839.