740.00116 E.W./9–944
The President of Haiti (Lescot) to President
Roosevelt
36
[Translation]
Port-au-Prince, September 9,
1944.
My Dear President and Great Friend: Guided only by
the wish to see just punishment meted out to those who have launched the
appalling cataclysm which descended several years ago on our planet, I take
the liberty following your solemn warning to neutral countries, with respect
to the application of the right of asylum to war criminals, to send the
enclosed Mémoire, which is strictly confidential.
It contains, as you will see in reading it, a suggestion that we felt we
could make to all the United Nations, although our position in the world
conflict is less than modest.
However, supported by the conviction that in such a case there can be no
discrimination between Nations because of their greatness or
smallness,—especially as it seems to us that the organization of the
post-war world should be based on the equality of rights of all States,—I do
not hesitate to submit this suggestion to the head of that great American
Nation which, through its undeniable power in all fields, has assured and
continues to assure the enjoyment of liberty and independence for the
Western Hemisphere.
We shall never be able, indeed, sufficiently to express our gratitude to the
Great Democracy, of which You assure the glorious destinies, for the
protection that it gives us. For we never fail to think of the fate which
would have been ours, in thinking of that of the peoples enslaved by Nazi
Germany.
[Page 1421]
I have asked our Ambassador in Washington to transmit this confidential Mémoire to the Department of State.37
The Government of the United States of America can take whatever account it
deems fit of our confidential suggestion, which we think is justified by the
view that humanity will be spared the horrors of armed conflict in the
future, in the measure in which exemplary punishment is inflicted on the
instigators of war.
Permit me to take this opportunity to renew to you, my dear President and
Great Friend, the expression of my highest consideration and unfailing
friendship.
[Enclosure—Translation]
Mémoire
Just as the great Allied powers are preparing to strike the last blow at
Nazism, as Germany is being driven to battle on its own territory, as
the madmen of this abhorred régime are mustering all their remaining
strength to increase still further the number of the infamous crimes
with which the civilized world charges them, the Honorable the President
of the United States of America, His Excellency Mr. Franklin D.
Roosevelt, felt that he should renew his warning to neutral countries
that the war criminals should not be able to find asylum on their
territories.
The Haitian Government, in complete support of the position taken by the
head of the great American Democracy, finds that under the circumstances
the scope of this solemn warning should be extended, by giving it the
form of a general decision which all the United Nations could adopt.
The Haitian Government realizes, of course, that on military matters its
voice is less than weak, although it did not hesitate a single moment to
side with the great Republic of the United States since the traitorous
attack of December 1941, with all the obligations which its attitude
entailed. It was absolutely decided to send its sons to any battlefield
to defend liberty which was dangerously threatened in its firmest
foundations. Only circumstances did not require this contribution which
it was ready to undertake.
However, it feels that it can make its voice heard on moral matters,
since one of the war aims of the United Nations is to abolish the
discrimination between large and small States.
[Page 1422]
It feels this all the more as the present step that it is taking seems to
it to be founded on logic and common sense.
Our Government thus takes the liberty of suggesting, in the hope of
general adherence, that the United Nations, by a joint declaration,
decide by common consent that no neutral country will have the right to
grant sanctuary to war criminals who, under the cover of an
anti-Christian ideology, have committed acts which make one shudder and
which will always be a disgrace to humanity.
Such a decision may seem contrary to the most positive rules of Public
International Law. It may appear to conflict with the right of
sovereignty and independence as it was set forth by the American
Institute of International Law in its “Declaration of the rights and
duties of Nations”, proclaimed at its January 6, 1916 session … Our
Government feels, however, that the recognized rights of neutral Nations
unequivocally impose moral obligations toward all the United Nations
which have fought and are still fighting for the safeguard of
civilization.
Therefore, the United Nations should make a joint agreement courteously
to request the surrender of all the war criminals recognized by the
courts, which will have been set up by the great democratic powers, from
any neutral country, on the territory of which they have sought
sanctuary. They should also agree that in case of a refusal from some
neutral country, they should use force in order to inflict an exemplary
punishment on those who thought that they could act as barbarians
without hindrance.
The example of the impunity enjoyed by the last Emperor of Germany,38 after the first World
War of 1914–1918, is sufficiently remembered by all to make one wish to
avoid its repetition.
Not to punish severely the criminals of this war would be to encourage
barbarism. It would invite other acts of aggression in the
indeterminable future. To allow such assassins to find a safe sanctuary
wherever it may be, would be to wrong the memory of those who sacrificed
their lives to rid Christendom of an evil brood.
And, it would, above all, expose the coming generations to death in a
future war which one may well imagine will be much more murderous than
the present struggle. It would be risking the failure of one of the aims
of the United Nations: the suppression of the aggressor complex of
certain nations.
E. Lescot
Port-au-Prince
, September
9, 1944.
