Mr. Powell to Mr.
Hay.
Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince, June 25,
1903.
No. 1310.]
Sir: I have the honor to state to the
Department that the American part of the Syrian colony has sent to me
one of their number, stating the great personal danger to all of them;
that an effort was being made to excite the lower class against them, to
pillage their stores and to injure them personally, and requesting me to
take measures to protect them. They also informed me that those claiming
the protection of the French minister had been to see him and that he
had had an audience with the President regarding this matter, and that
if the danger appeared imminent he would request his Government to
dispatch a naval vessel for their protection.
I informed this representative that I would see what steps the Government
had taken for their protection, but I thought they were needlessly
alarmed; if there were signs of danger, to close their stores, and those
that had American flags to raise them; and if they feared personal
injury to come to our legation and we would protect them, and I did not
feel willing to request that a naval vessel be sent unless there was
absolute danger.
In this connection I can state that there is a very bitter feeling
engendered toward this class of people, though I do not think it is as
great as they state. Recently placards or posters have been placed by
unknown parties in several parts of the city calling upon the Government
to compel these people to leave. The wording of these papers shows that
an effort is being made to inflame the lower class toward them.
Neither House has acted upon the petition to which I referred in my No.
1298, dated June 10, 1903.
I inclose a copy of one of these circulars.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Death to the invasion.
[Circular.]
Such is the heartrending cry that comes from the bosoms of all
Haitians; the foreigners friends of Haiti bewail the unfortunate
fate of the national commerce on account of the invasion of the
Syrians.
[Page 600]
The people, fatigued with a rivalry as disloyal as monstrous, seeing
the ruin of all the hard-working families of the country, come to
ask of the paternal government of General Nord to disentangle them
from the claws of these birds of prey that are named Syrians.
The cry of women, of widows, of unfortunate young girls, of orphans,
of old men, finally, of all those who suffer.
We beg the chief of state, in the name of the glorious martyrs of the
independence, of those who have spilled their precious blood to
league to us this little corner of land, to lend an attentive ear to
these complaints, to all these cries and groans, coming from all
parts to claim a sacred right.
It is the voice of a whole nation that makes itself heard, asking the
expulsion of the Syrians from the territory of Haiti, as the
Venezuelans asked a year ago. President Castro, taking in serious
consideration the solicitations of the people, decided to dismiss
all the orientals residing on the territory of Venezuela.
The president of the great starry Republic has not spared the Chinese
to satisfy the desire of his people reclaiming their rights.
The honorable old man who directs the destinies of Haiti will reply,
we are sure, to the complaint of the population whose sufferings
reach up to the presidential palace.
The expulsion of the Syrians, after the formation of the
administrative inquiry commission, will be one of the most beautiful
acts that the chief of state could accomplish.
