File No. 738.3915/98a.]

The Acting Secretary of State to the American Minister to Haiti.

[Telegram.—Paraphrase.]

State the following to the Minister for Foreign Affairs: Reports have reached this Department that the Haitian authorities on the [Page 382] frontier are giving active support to the revolution led by Arias; that arms are being sent to Haitian ports for reshipment to Dominican territory for the use of the revolutionists; that Hiatian troops are advancing southward beyond the zone in dispute; and that the Government of the United States can not remain indifferent to such information, but must take a special interest in maintaining the status quo on the Haitian-Dominican frontier because of the position it holds as mediator in the question which both Governments have wisely resolved to submit to arbitration according to the terms of a compromise to be arranged at Washington through the good offices of this Government. If the Haitian Government should not take immediate vigorous steps to refute the above-mentioned rumors, this Government will regretfully have to conclude that the Haitian Government has modified its attitude in favor of the settlement of the boundary dispute by immediate arbitration, a conclusion which will appear the more unavoidable because of the apparently inexplicable failure of the Haitian Government to furnish the Haitian Minister here with unlimited full powers similar to those with which the Dominican Minister is provided, signed on January 18 by the Dominican Government, as follows:

We have resolved to appoint and constitute him, and we do hereby appoint and constitute him, a plenipotentiary of the Dominican Republic for the purpose of negotiating, concluding and signing, with whatever person or persons may hold similar full powers from the Republic of Haiti, any treaty, convention, act, or arrangement that may be deemed necessary for the submission to arbitration of the boundary question pending between the two Republics.

Wilson.