File No. 738.3915/175a.]
The Acting Secretary of State to the Dominican Minister.1
Washington, September 27, 1912.
My dear Mr. Minister: I have the honor to inform you that on September 24 the American Minister at Santo Domingo City was instructed to deliver the following note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs: [see the instruction of September 24, 3 p.m.]
The fact that all of the custom houses on the Dominican-Haitian frontier have had to be abandoned on account of the disturbed conditions there, and the necessity of assuring the observance of the status quo existing at the time this Government undertook, by its good offices, to assist the Governments of the Dominican Republic and of the Republic of Haiti to reach an amicable adjustment of their boundary dispute, have persuaded this Government that it is necessary that some definite de facto line should be fixed, which shall be observed until the ultimate settlement of the boundary controversy. As the line indicated on the War Department’s map, referred to in the note to the Foreign Office, insofar as this Government is informed, practically coincides with the status quo existing in January, and as the map was made long prior to the controversy from wholly impartial information, this Government decided to respect the line therein indicated as the customs frontier and to have this line patrolled by the reestablished customs guard under the Receiver General of Customs of the Dominican Republic.
In this connection I desire to draw your attention to the advisability of meeting at the Department with the Minister of Haiti and the Acting Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs, to formally sign the minutes of the proceedings at the various conferences held at the Department regarding the boundary dispute. For this purpose Mr. Janes will consult with you and with the Haitian Minister and arrange a definite appointment. In view of the fact that at the last session both yourself and the Minister of Haiti announced that you could not agree upon the terms of a protocol to submit the question to arbitration, the Department feels that perhaps the best course to follow will be to endeavor to make some friendly suggestion to both plenipotentiaries in regard to the terms of a submission, and will be glad to take up this question so soon as the customs houses shall have been reestablished and the customs guard replaced on the de facto line.
I am [etc.]
- The same mutatis mutandis, to the Minister of Haiti.↩