840.48 Refugees/2266: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti (Mayer)
157. Your despatch no. 1011, September 18,78 particularly the first paragraph on page 5. The Department desires you to discourage at every opportunity and in a manner which can leave no doubt in President Vincent’s mind all projects for bringing additional European refugees to Haiti under the circumstances that have prevailed in the past. It has been evident for some time that the Haitian Government possesses very limited facilities for judging the political connections of such refugees or of determining their financial status.
The position of this Government, which has been communicated on numerous occasions to the Haitian Minister in Washington and, it is thought, by your Legation to President Vincent, is that existing conditions in Haiti hardly warrant the migration to that country of additional European refugees. The Department therefore would deplore further interest by the Haitian Government in the admission of refugees among whose numbers will doubtless be found elements prejudicial to the safety of the Republic of Haiti and this country, while at the same time ineffective measures are taken in Haiti to deal with the subversive activities which are reputedly engaged in there by these migrants.
- Not printed.↩