File No. 839.00/1192.
Minister Sullivan to the Secretary of State.
Santo Domingo, April 17, 1914.
Sir: I have the honor to report as follows upon the present political situation in the Republic:
The Provisional Government seems at present to be the only strong unit in the political field. The Government is being opposed by Arias, leading an insurrection in the Cibao, and by three other factions in Congress, namely, the Jimenistas, Horacistas, and Velasquistas. Bordas has taken the field against Arias with a force of 1,500 men, and without doubt will succeed in breaking up the insurrectionary force into groups.
At the capital the opposition groups in Congress have made common cause against the Bordas Government, but, unfortunately, these groups have no constructive policy and could not agree upon a successor to Bordas if they succeeded in removing him from the Provisional Presidency, which up to the 13th of April they ardently desired and planned to do.
The two great questions of importance to this country are, first, the loan, to settle the economic difficulties of the country; and, second, the election of a President to succeed the present incumbent.
As I have indicated in my cable despatches, the Congress is not willing to authorize the loan because the Congress is filled with men each of whom hopes that the party to which he belongs will have the pleasant task of distributing the funds, and each is willing to take a patriotic part in the work of distribution.
It was believed that on April 13 Congress would raise a constitutional question as to whether Bordas should be succeeded by another [Page 226] ad interim President between the periods of April 1? and July 1, 1914. On April 13, 1913, Bordas was elected for the term of one year, within which period he should call for the election of a successor. The best information I can receive supports the Government’s position that Bordas holds until a successor is elected by the people, and that Congress had no right to declare the Presidency vacant, as it intended to do on April 13 of this year. There was great excitement as this date approached, with rumors of uprising and riots and general disorder against the further life of the Provisional Government. The Government made great preparations in this city to suppress any attempt at its overthrow.
April 13 arrived and passed without any untoward event, and a discussion was prevented on the question of the right of Bordas to remain by the action of a minority of the House of Deputies remaining away and preventing a quorum from being present. The Government has a majority in the Senate, and since April 13 there has not been a session of either branch of the legislature.
In the meantime there is promise of a compromise between the Government and the Jimenista party which may result in a final adjustment of the constitutional deadlock.
Notwithstanding the bitterness of the constitutional elements, the first impulse of some of the opposition constitutional elements to take advantage of the Arias rebellion has passed and all factions are bitterly denouncing this leader. There is a suspicion abroad that Luis Vidal would like to join him, but he has not done so to date. There are many Horacista and Jimenista leaders siding with the Government, and these men are moved to this course by what they deemed to be the chaotic condition of the opposition, which simply aims to tear down without having any alternative government to replace Bordas and his friends.
All parties agree that this is so and that there is no hope of any concert of action beyond the work of removing the Provisional Government.
An election is now a certainty as soon as the Government can establish itself at Monte Christi and Dajabon, because the lower house has at last passed the election law that Bordas wanted in time to hold elections on April 1 and 2. I desire to call attention, in passing, to the fact that in many towns in the North, where the news had not reached that the elections of April 1 and 2 were abandoned, quiet and orderly elections were held. In Puerto Plata, Bordas assemblymen were elected; in Monte Christi, Arias proclaimed that he would prove that he was in favor of free elections. He permitted the Jimenista party to put a ticket in the field in opposition to his ticket. There was one day of quiet voting, which resulted as follows: Jimenez, 109; Arias, 9. On learning this result Arias gave a peremptory order that there should be no more voting in Monte Christi.
I desire to call the attention of the Department to conditions here which have resulted from the application of Wilson Latin-American policy.
Notwithstanding the present trouble those who are willing and eager to criticize the efforts of the Department here frankly admit the following, which it is impossible to deny: that there has been a wonderful improvement in matters governmental here; that never [Page 227] before, in the history of the country, has there been such liberality of Government; that at a time of the keenest political interest, with excitement at a feverish pitch and with the politicians passionately in earnest, the Government has not made a single arrest and there has not been one execution. Mr. McLean, whose report I shall annex3 and who has lived here six years, and whose report breathes hostility to the Provisional Government, says that it is almost unbelievable that in this situation there are neither arrests nor executions.
Again, the lesson that the Department has taught by the President’s and your pronouncements against revolutions is being learned to the dismay and chagrin of the band of generals who have lived in the past upon revolutions.
Captain McLean is again surprised in his talk with me, and so reports in the letter annexed,3 that the people are weary and tired of resort to arms and will have any government rather than fight over the question as to who shall have power. I am convinced that things are so shaping themselves here that the election coming—and it will come in a short time—will be a reasonably free, fair, and orderly one. The freedom of press that the country has enjoyed since the December elections is now being exercised with attention to the decencies of life and with a decreasing disposition to indulge in license. When one of the papers attacked me the Government was disposed to interfere, but I urged upon the Government that such interference would place me in a false and inconsistent position.
I am sorry to have to report that some Americans here, for no better reason than a desire to see a chaotic condition exist, have assumed an attitude of covert opposition to every effort for law, order, and peace. These efforts on their part, however, are not retarding the progress of the Department’s policy.
The people of the country are in a state of anxiety to pursue the peaceful occupations of life, and with the present spirit continuing to grow, and with the lesson being learned that revolution does not point out the way to profit and power, there is hope for tranquility here, and I believe that in a year the professional revolutionist will have neither a home nor a habitation in the land.
During the trying times that we have been passing through here I have been able to meet the situation by reason of the moral support and counsel given me by the Department’s representatives, Messrs. Blount and Dickey. These gentlemen have been untiring in their efforts to bring order and peace to the country, and they have fortified me in many difficult situations to maintain an attitude of discretion in representing my Government and of helpfulness in my dealings with the Government to which I am accredited. I would be doing less than my duty if I did not call the Department’s attention to this patriotic attitude on the part of these gentlemen, who felt free to consult with me on my invitation, supported by your appointment of them as advisers in the coming elections, which election embraces, incidentally, all the matters of government that have come to the Legation for attention.
I have [etc.,]