I have explained to Mr. Brun the nature of the Department’s instruction to
you relative to this case, and observed that his communication would be
forwarded to you in connection therewith.
[Inclosure in No.
350.—Translation.]
Mr. Brun to the
President.
No. 5 Rue St. George’s,
Paris, March 25,
1885.
Mr. President: As the representative in France
of Mr. d’Almena, an American citizen of the State of New York, I have
the honor to call your Excellency’s attention to the arbitrary arrest of
that estimable gentleman, and to the bad treatment which he is now
suffering at Port-au-Prince, Hayti, he being in danger of losing
everything—his life, his honor, and his property.
It is now more than three months (seventy days had elapsed at last
accounts) since your fellow-citizen was placed in solitary confinement,
wholly without cause. During this time he has been allowed no
communication with any one, not even with counsel or his most intimate
friend. The reason alleged is that he was implicated in the frauds that
were committed in connection with the Bank of Hayti, and afterwards in
the revolutionary movements that took place at Port-au-Prince in
September, 1883.
Having been deprived of all means of subsistence, and of all things that
are an absolute necessity in hot climates, he owes the preservation of
his life to indomitable will-power and his good constitution only. I do
not hesitate to assert that so long a period of such solitary
confinement is without precedent in Hayti; the greatest criminals have
never been subjected to it, much less foreigners. During all this time,
more than one hundred and fifty witnesses have been heard, and it has
not been possible to make good the slightest charge against him.
It is not to be denied that the Bank of Hayti was robbed, and that those
robberies were a matter in which the Government, as well as the bank,
was interested; but Mr. d’Almena, who was the attorney for the Paris
board of directors, and a mere inspector, had no part therein whatever.
The parties who really committed the robberies, and who were doubtless
the bank officers themselves, the directors of that board, concealed
themselves from him, owing to his perfect honesty.
For the very reason that they were conscious of their guilt, they saved
themselves by flight, whereas he came to France at the request of the
Paris board, and returned to Hayti of his own accord in the month of
October last, in order to attend to his private business. He, therefore,
evidently believed that he had nothing to fear from Haytian justice.
It seems to have been designed to make him the scape-goat for all the
errors of others, and for reasons of which I am ignorant he has been
tormented with a view to shielding the real offenders.
It is not possible, Mr. President, for such a state of things to
continue, and your protection must be accorded to an American citizen
who has been thus outraged.
I therefore take the liberty to call your attention to these facts, which
are in violation of international law, as it is my duty to do, and, as
has doubtless already been done by the American consul at
Port-au-Prince, and I trust that your Excellency will espouse the cause
of the oppressed by issuing the necessary orders for his release, and
afterwards for his proper indemnification for all outrages to which he
has been subjected.
I have, &c.,
(C. M. Brun, formerly a notary at Paris.)
