[Enclosure]
The American Minister (Munro) to the Haitian
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Blanchet)
No. 180
Port-au-Prince, September 12,
1932.
Excellency: I have the honor to inform
Your Excellency that my Government has observed that Article I of
the new Constitution of Haiti, in defining the territory of the
Republic, includes Navassa Island as a part of that territory. I
have been instructed to bring the following facts to Your
Excellency’s attention.
A proclamation was issued by the United States Government on December
8, 1859, to the effect that E. K. Cooper, as
assignee of Peter Duncan, was
entitled in respect to the guano on Navassa Island to all the
privileges and advantages intended by the Act of Congress of August
18, 1856, to be secured to citizens of the United States who may
have discovered deposits of guano.
The proclamation in question was held by the United States Supreme
Court in the case of Jones vs. The United States (137 U. S. 202) as
equivalent to a declaration that the President considered the Island
as appertaining to the United States. Moreover, the Court held that
the subsequent acts of the President, through the Departments
[Page 708]
of State and Treasury, had
confirmed the indicated view. The acts referred to were the
inclusion of the Island in a list of guano islands appertaining to
the United States and bonded under the said Act of Congress, annexed
to a circular of the Treasury Department of February 12, 1869; the
denial by the State Department in letters addressed to the Haitian
Minister on December 31, 1872, and June 10, 1873, of the claim of
the Haitian Government to that Island, and the reassertion of the
exclusive jurisdiction of the United States over the Island.
In a note sent to the Haitian Legation at Washington on July 14,
1915, the Department of State quoted that portion of the note of
June 10, 1873, which stated that the United States had given careful
attention to the claims of the Government of Haiti with respect to
Navassa Island but had concluded that the position of the United
States with respect thereto “is fully sustained by facts, by history
and by the well settled principles of public laws.” In a further
communication dated July 14, 1915, the Department of State said that
it was unable to discover that the Haitian Government had produced
since the note of June 10, 1873, “any argument or evidence that
would affect the position then taken by the United States.” The last
mentioned statement remains true to this date.
By a proclamation of the President of the United States dated January
17, 1916, Navassa Island was reserved for lighthouse purposes and
that it is still used for such purposes. This action of the
President was based upon the said act of Congress of August 18,
1856, and upon the further Act of October 22, 1913, providing for
the construction of a light station on the Island.
In view of the above I have been instructed to make a formal
reservation of the rights of the United States with respect to
Navassa Island, which is now actually occupied by the United States
for the purpose of maintaining a lighthouse thereon.
Accept [etc.]
[File copy not signed]
