438.00/409
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Howard)
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of April 8, 1927, in further relation to the claims of three British subjects which your Government is unable to consider as having been satisfactorily settled by the Claims Commission, recently functioning in Haiti, and which it has instructed its representative at Port-au-Prince to present to the Haitian Government.
Contrary to your information in the matter, the claims in question have not been brought to the Department’s attention by Dr. Cumberland, who, moreover, while nominated by the President of the United States, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty of 1915 between the United States and Haiti, for the position of Financial Adviser to the Haitian Government, was appointed to that position, also under the terms of the treaty, by the President of Haiti, and is an official of the Haitian Government.
In response to your request to be advised as to the attitude which the Government of the United States decides to adopt with regard to these claims, I may state that, as indicated in my note of April 2, 1927, the Department has no information as to whether the Haitian Government will seek its advice with respect to the recognition to be accorded the claims in question. Moreover, it would seem to me to be premature for the Department now to assume any attitude with regard to this matter, concerning which the Haitian Government may never seek its advice.
Accept [etc.]