838.51/2772
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Haiti (Armour)
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 212 of December 14, 1933, relating to the overtures made to our Delegation by the Haitian Delegation to the Seventh International Conference of American States to abolish the financial control envisaged in the accord of August 7, 1933.
Although it was evident from the letter of President Vincent to the President dated November 16, 1933, mentioned in your telegram No. 126 of November 21,83 copy of which was transmitted to you with the Department’s instruction No. 109 of December 2, 1933,84 that the Haitian Government desired to reopen the question, the Department had no intimation that an effort would be made in this sense by the Haitian Delegation to the Seventh Pan American Conference until the receipt of the Secretary’s telegram of November 22, 1933, of which you were informed in the Department’s telegram No. 83 of December 1, 1933.
It is to be noted that in none of the communications from the Secretary set forth in the Department’s No. 83 of December 1, No. 85 of December 4, and instruction No. 119 of December 29,85 was any mention made of an exchange of notes between the Secretary and the Haitian Delegation. It would therefore appear, as you suggest, that the “Oral Statement” enclosed with your despatch under acknowledgment was referred to as a note by M. Barau in his telegrams to the Haitian Government.
With respect to the suggestion contained in the Secretary’s telegram of November 26, as quoted in the Department’s No. 83 of December 1 and referred to in the first paragraph of the “Oral Statement”, that you be instructed to inform the Haitian Government of the Secretary’s recommendations in the matter, you are informed that at the time the Secretary’s telegram of November 26th was received, the reply of President Roosevelt to President Vincent had not been completed and it was therefore decided to incorporate in that letter the abovementioned recommendations of the Secretary, instead of sending them through you. This was accordingly done, as set forth in the last paragraph of the Department’s No. 83 of December 1, which you interpreted correctly. The Department desires to commend you for the tactful and correct manner in which you interpreted the Department’s telegraphic instructions in the premises.
[Page 778]Should you so desire, you may take the first appropriate opportunity to explain to President Vincent the reason why the Secretary’s suggestions were not sent through you but were instead embodied in President Roosevelt’s letter to President Vincent.
Upon the return of the American Delegation the Department will furnish you with any further information available.
Very truly yours,