838.51/4160
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of the American Republics (Finley)
Mr. Francis White, President of the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council, telephoned me at 4:45 today to say that at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council, it had been decided to approve the proposal of Mr. de la Rue that the interest on Haitian bonds during the present calendar year be paid at the rate of 4 percent rather than at 6 percent. Mr. White said that the Council’s action was based on Mr. de la Rue’s statement that the Haitian situation had become worse since he had last communicated with the Council, in the sense that the British Government had declined to purchase Haitian cotton and sugar. He inquired whether this was correct and I assured him that it was.
Mr. White said that he was telegraphing Mr. de la Rue of the Council’s action today and that he supposed it would be necessary for some sort of an agreement modifying the Accord of 1933 to be concluded between the United States and the Haitian Government. I said that I was not certain of this and that we were looking up the point.