Self-Determining Haiti Part 6

My Government takes note of your declaration.

J. BARAU, Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

The Concession of the National City Bank

Simultaneously with the non-payment of the July salaries of the President and other officials of the Haitian Republic, the Haitian Minister of Finance received from the Financial Adviser, an American, nominally a Haitian official, but acting under instructions from the American Government, the following letter urging immediate ratification of a modified form of agreement between the United States Department of State and the National City Bank of New York. It was widely a.s.sumed in Haiti that this letter supplied the key to the unexplained non-payment of salaries, ordered by Mr. A. Bailly-Blanchard, the American Minister.

The letter was printed in the _Moniteur_ for August 14.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 2, 1920

TO THE SECRETARY OF FINANCE

I have the honor to inform you that I have been instructed by my Government that in view of the continual delay in obtaining the consent of the Haitian Government to the transfer to the new bank of the modified concession as agreed upon between the Government of the United States and the National City Bank, the Government of the United States has agreed to let the operations of the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti continue indefinitely on the French contract at present existing, without amendment.

I desire urgently to draw your attention to the fact that it would be most desirable in the interest of the Haitian people that the Government of Haiti should give its immediate consent to the proposed modifications of the contract and to accept the transfer of the bank rather than see the present contract continue with its present clauses.

JOHN MCILHENNY, Financial Adviser