[Enclosure]
The American Minister (Munro) to the Haitian Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Sannon)
Port au Prince, February 6,
1931.
No. 24
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of Your Excellency’s note of January 14, 1931,18 and to say that I have
given careful study to the proposals therein contained.
[Page 416]
The Government of the United States desires to replace as rapidly as
practicable the Americans now serving in the Treaty Services by the
Haitian citizens who have been receiving training and experience in
these Services, in order that it may be possible not later than 1936
to withdraw entirely the American personnel. If this process is to
be carried out in such a way as to provide for the efficient
operation of the Services during the intervening period, the
necessary changes in personnel must of course be made in an orderly
manner, taking into consideration in each instance not only the
capacity and the practical experience of the individual to be
appointed, but also the desirability of avoiding the impairment of
the efficiency of the Service as a working organization by too
abrupt and sweeping changes. I am confident, however, that the
replacement of American by Haitian personnel can be effected with a
maximum of efficiency and rapidity if the two Governments work in
harmony toward this end.
I have already advised Your Excellency informally of the measures of
Haitianization which my Government is prepared to adopt in the near
future if a satisfactory accord on points under discussion between
the two Governments can be reached. In my personal letter of
December 20, 1930,19 I discussed the matter in
some detail. On January 21, 1931, I handed Your Excellency an
informal Memorandum regarding the Service Technique,20 the contents of which
I hereby confirm, and on January 23, 1931, I transmitted a plan
which this Legation would be prepared to put into execution for the
promotion of Haitian officers in the Garde d’Haiti.21
With regard to the other matters discussed in Your Excellency’s note
and memorandum of January 14th., I have the honor to reply as
follows:
The Public Works Service
Your Excellency proposes the immediate appointment of a Haitian
engineer as Assistant Engineer in Chief. M. Jeannot is now acting as
principal assistant to the Executive Officer of the Public Works
Service. In this position, he is kept in direct contact with all
business which is transacted and every opportunity is given to him
to study and participate in the work of the Service so that he may
receive training which would make him capable of assuming the entire
direction of the Service upon the expiration of the Treaty. I
believe that this arrangement will achieve the purpose which Your
Excellency has in mind.
[Page 417]
With respect to the other proposals which Your Excellency makes
regarding specific appointments, I am prepared to adopt the
following program if a satisfactory accord on other points under
discussion can be reached:
Engineer Ethéart to be appointed Director of Irrigation and Engineer
Maignan Director of Public Buildings immediately; Engineer Ménos to
be appointed Director of Telegraphs and Telephones, and Engineer
Péreira, Director of Roads within one year; and a Haitian Engineer
as Director of Municipal Engineering within two years. The execution
of this program must of course be dependent upon the continued
satisfactory performance of their present duties by the Engineers
referred to during the remainder of their training.
With regard to the District Engineers, I understand that M. Cauvin is
now serving in this capacity at Jacmel. M. Martin could be appointed
Departmental Engineer at Aux Cayes immediately upon the conclusion
of an accord on other questions. The Engineer in Chief is not
prepared to appoint M. Sales immediately as District Engineer at
Jérémie for reasons which have been fully explained to M. Sales
himself.
With regard to the proposal that the present inspectors be recalled
from the Department of the North and Artibonite Northwest, I regret
to say that I cannot assume any commitment which would restrict the
full liberty of the Engineer in Chief to make use of such inspectors
as he may deem necessary so long as he has the responsibility for
the direction and the control of the Service.
The Public Health Service
While it is essential that the American Administrator of the Haitian
General Hospital should have full responsibility and authority in
the management of that Institution until its complete
Haitianization, the Director General of the Public Health Service is
prepared immediately upon the conclusion of a general accord to
appoint a Haitian Codirector to be associated with the American
Director in the latter’s work, with a view to training him to take
full control of the Institution upon the withdrawal of the American
personnel.
With regard to the proposal that a Haitian Co-director be appointed
for the National Public Health Service as a whole, I may say that
Dr. Torchon is already occupying the position of Executive Officer
and principal Assistant of the Director General and in this position
is being given every opportunity for training in the work of
directing the Service as a whole.
With further reference to this Service, I may point out that five out
of the ten sanitary districts have already been placed under Haitian
[Page 418]
officials, and that
according to present plans the district of Jacmel will be turned
over during the coming year and the districts of Gonaives and Cayes
during 1932 or 1933.
The Office of the Financial
Adviser-General Receiver
The Government of the United States considers that any further
extensive Haitianization of this Service would be inadvisable and
impracticable at the present time. As I have stated in my informal
letter of December 20, 1930, the situation of this office is
different from that of the other Treaty Services because its major
activities will continue after the expiration of the Treaty, until
the amortization of the existing debt, under the provisions of the
Protocol of 1919 and the loan contracts. Furthermore, in view of the
world wide financial depression and the very difficult present
financial situation of the Haitian Government, it is necessary to
proceed with the greatest caution in taking any steps which might
result in a reduction of revenue or which might make more difficult
the problem of keeping expenditures within the revenue available.
For these reasons, I am unable to accede to the proposal that a
Haitian Director of the Bureau of Contributions be appointed at
present, or to agree with Your Excellency that the time has arrived
to withdraw all American personnel from the Customs Service. I take
due note, however, of Your Excellency’s statement that the Haitian
Government is prepared to negotiate with the Government of the
United States a special accord on the basis of the Protocol of 1919,
to cover the situation existing after the expiration of the Treaty,
and I have the honor to suggest that the discussion of questions
relating to the financial services be postponed until they can be
considered in connection with these proposed negotiations. It is
obviously far, more urgent to deal at the present time with the
other Treaty Services from which all American personnel will
presumably be withdrawn during the next five years, in order that
adequate provision may be made now for the sweeping changes which it
will be necessary to make during this rather short period.
In discussing the question of Haitianization as a whole, I wish to
assure Your Excellency that the steps which the Government of the
United States is now prepared to take or commit itself to take in
the future do not represent a maximum but rather a minimum to be
achieved in the process of Haitianization. The Government of the
United States desires that the functions now exercised by American
officials in the Treaty Services be turned over to Haitian citizens
as rapidly as practicable, and it will always stand ready to
expedite the process of Haitianization if the conditions existing in
the Treaty Services make it seem proper and possible to proceed
faster than is now contemplated.
Accept [etc.]
[File copy not signed]
