dent of the Commission to represent the Government at the unveiling of the Maine Monument. The commission consists of Colonel José Martí, representing the Cuban Army; the Commander of the cruiser Cuba, representing the Navy; Consul General of Cuba Mariano Rocafort; Señores Pazos and Torralbas, of the Cuban House of Representatives, representing Congress. The Congressional Committee will arrive tomorrow morning from Havana via Key West, and will be met by the Mayor of the City of New York and Consul General Rocafort, and it is understood that Governor Sulzer will also meet the Commission. The Army and Navy Commission will arrive on the cruiser Cuba tomorrow morning. The Cuban Chargé will leave tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock and will stop at the Plaza. A luncheon will be given by the Maine Monument Commission at the Plaza Hotel at 1.30 p. m. Friday, and at 3 p. m. the unveiling ceremonies will take place. (Not dated; received May 28, 1913.) File No. 811.413 M28/8. The Secretary of State of Cuba to the Secretary of State. [Telegram-Translation.] HABANA, June 3, 1913. Permit me to convey to you the satisfaction felt by all the official and social elements of the Republic at the brilliant and friendly reception of the representatives and forces of the Army and Navy of Cuba who attended the dedication of the Maine Monument in the City of New York. As your telegram to the authorities of the State and City of New York recommending most solicitously the reception of the Cuban Commission contributed without doubt to so cordial a demonstration, I beg you to accept the expression of the sincere gratitude of our President, Government and people. TORRIENTE. File No. 811.413 M28/8. The Secretary of State to the American Minister. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I enclose herewith a communication addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba in acknowledgment of a telegram sent by him to the Secretary of State, expressing the gratitude of the President, the Government and the people of Cuba at the reception accorded to the Cuban representatives who attended the ceremonies incident to the dedication of the Maine memorial at New York City. It is desired to have you hand the letter to the Minister. I am [etc.] For the Secretary of State: [Inclosure.] The Secretary of State to the Secretary of State of Cuba. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, June 19, 1913. EXCELLENCY: I have had the honor to receive the telegram which you courteously despatched to me on the 3d instant, in which you were so good as to convey an expression of the gratitude felt by the President, the Government and the people of Cuba at the reception accorded to the representatives sent by your Government to attend the ceremonies incident to the dedication of the Maine monument at New York City. The friendly action of the Government of Cuba in officially participating in these ceremonies was most highly appreciated by the Government of the United States, and I beg to assure you that the President and his associates in Government were greatly gratified to learn that the treatment received by the Cuban representatives was such as to warrant so cordial an acknowledgment. I avail [etc.] W. J. BRYAN. File No. 811.413 M28/10. The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. No. 722.] AMERICAN LEGATION, Habana, June 30, 1913. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department's instruction No. 238 of the 19th instant, enclosing a letter addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Secretary of State) of Cuba, acknowledging a telegram sent by him in regard to the reception accorded the Cuban representatives to the Maine memorial ceremonies; and to report that I have transmitted the letter in question to Mr. Torriente. I have [etc.] HUGH S. GIBSON. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT, ARCHBISHOP ADOLFO A. NOUEL. File No. 839.032/6. The American Minister to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN LEGATION, Santo Domingo, March 15, 1913. SIR: I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy in Spanish text of the message which the Provisional President of the Republic, Archbishop Nouel, presented to Congress convened in ordinary session on February 27th. I have [etc.] WILLIAM W. RUSSELL. [Inclosure-Translation-Extract.1] As the land customhouses of Comendador and Tierra Nueva were abandoned by the Assistants of the General Receiver in consequence of the state of war, the United States Government resolved to protect said employees by maintaining the Frontier Guard, in order to prevent the customs receipts allotted to the payment of the foreign debt from suffering any detriment.' 3 With this object, and in view of its contractual relations with the Republic and its position as mediator between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti in their boundary dispute the United States Government determined to consider as a de facto provisional line between the two Republics, without prejudice to the rights and obligations of either country and pending the conclusion of a final settlement of the boundary dispute, the line indicated on the map of Haiti and Santo Domingo prepared by the Second Division (Military Information) of the General Staff, Washington 1907 and 1908, sheet No. 6, of Monte Cristi, and sheet No. 7, of Barahona, which you will find appended to the Report on Foreign Relations. Said measure, taken in order that the customs receipts might be duly protected and that the provisional line thus determined might be guarded and temporarily respected, was never carried out, for the reason that the abnormal situation of the country and the circumstances which occurred afterwards rendered unnccessary the action of the American Government along this line. The commission sent here by President Taft at the beginning of September, 1912, after studying the situation not only with respect to the official object of its mission that is, the restoration of the customshouses and of the Frontier Guard-but also with respect to our domestic policy, withdrew some days before the resignation of President Victoria, without the troops who came with it on the Prairie having to land at any point on Dominican territory. I deem it my duty to copy here, for the information of the Congress, the messages which, under date of December 12, 1912, and January 23 last,' I received from the President of the United States in regard to the state of our domestic This passage is the only one making reference to the United States. 2 For. Rel. 1912, pp. 340 et seq. For. Rel. 1912, pp. 380 et seq. 4 For. Rel. 1912. pp. 378-379. See post, p. 419-420. 140322° -FR 1913 27 417 politics at the time, and to the desire of that Government to guarantee the peace and prosperity of the Dominican Republic. I will also copy the answer at the foot of each document: It is very distressing to me to know that your duties as Provisional President have proved so irksome, but I earnestly hope that you will continue to discharge them for the allotted time, in the interests of humanity and peace; and I can hardly doubt that every good element will join in supporting the Provisional Government and thus perform their patriotic duty toward the Dominican Republic, in whose welfare the United States is so vitally interested. I assure you that your efforts on behalf of the Dominican people will receive from the Government of the United States the sincerest and most earnest support. WM. H. TAFT. President Taft, Washington: Accept this expression of my gratitude for Your Excellency's message, received today. Like you, I hope that all good Dominicans will fulfill their patriotic duty to the Republic, which a long and cruel civil war has caused to suffer greatly. I must trust to the good faith of my fellow-citizens, who are well aware of the sentiment of the great American people, pioneers of liberty and justice, and of the desires of their Government. The limit of my tenure will depend on circumstances, and it is my fixed intention to leave it as soon as the whole country is pacified. In my name and that of the Dominican people receive, Mr. President, the expression of the most sincere gratitude. ADOLFO A. NOVEL, The most sympathetic interest is felt by the President and Government of the United States in your unselfish and patriotic efforts to maintain lawful and orderly government and to introduce needful reforms, thus assuring to the Dominican nation the blessings of prosperity and peace. The President and Government of the United States sincerely wish that your patient endeavors may so succeed as to exclude the possibility of a recurrence of such disorders as have afflicted the Dominican people. Those disorders would by their recurrence make more onerous the duty of the United States under its conventional and moral obligations never to be indifferent to the peace and order of the Dominican Republic. President Taft, Washington: WM. H. TAFT. I am profoundly touched by the generous interest of the Government and people of the United States and their hope that my persevering efforts for the peace and prosperity of the Dominican nation may prove so successful as to exclude all possibility of a recurrence of the disorders that have afflicted it. Notwithstanding the obstacles which the former state of war and its consequences have caused, I earnestly trust-and I beg Your Excellency to share this trust-that the occasion may not arise for the Government of the United States to fulfill in a manner painful to the Dominican people its moral obligations and those imposed by the Convention of 1907. PRESIDENT NOVEL. POLITICAL AFFAIRS RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT NOUEL; ELECTION AND INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT BORDAS; REVOLUTION; MEASURES IN REGARD THERETO TAKEN BY THE UNITED STATES; OBSERVATION OF DOMINICAN ELECTIONS BY UNITED STATES OFFICIALS.1 File No. 839.00/777. The American Minister to the Secretary of State. [Telegram-Paraphrase.] AMERICAN LEGATION, Santo Domingo, January 15, 1913. President Nouel advised me this morning of a plot to gain possession of the fort here by prominent Horacista generals. Horacio Vásquez himself denounced the plot and offered to place himself and some of his followers in the fort to maintain order. The Archbishop [President Nouel] has for some time been urged arbitrarily to abolish the present Congress and make himself dictator. 1 Continued from For. Rel. 1912, pp. 340-380. He has absolutely refused and is thinking of convoking Congress in extraordinary session to consider constitutional reforms and other matters. He expresses himself as despondent over the probabilities of success in his efforts for good government unless the Government of the United States takes an active part in controlling elections and the establishment of a government expressing the will of the people. He therefore requests me to obtain from you if possible a statement that can be made public as to the necessity of such a step on our part if the disorders of the past should tend to recur. RUSSELL. File No. 839.00/777. The Secretary of State to the American Minister. [Telegram-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 22, 1913. The following statement may be given to President Nouel as a message from me, to be made public if he sees fit: The most sympathetic interest is felt by the President and Government of the United States in your unselfish and patriotic efforts to maintain lawful and orderly government and to introduce needful reforms, thus assuring to the Dominican nation the blessings of prosperity and peace. The President and Government of the United States sincerely wish that your patient endeavors may so succeed as to exclude the possibility of a recurrence of such disorders as have afflicted the Dominican people. Those disorders would by their recurrence make more onerous the duty of the United States under its conventional and oral obligations never to be indifferent to the peace and order of the Dominican Republic. You will do everything in your power to hold up the hands of the President, Archbishop Nouel, and to impress him with the necessity of patiently continuing in office. It would be well to advert in your conversations to the fact that under the present electoral law it is apparently almost impossible to accomplish much in the direction. of free elections, however willing the Government of the United States might be to lend its aid; and that as a prerequisite to free elections it would seem indispensable to provide some form of previous registration and some form of voting that would prevent fraud. You might also suggest in informal conversation that besides the electoral law other reforms seem to the Department to be urgently needed, and that these might possibly be accomplished without reform of the Constitution. For instance, reform of the laws relating to provincial and communal governments, the law of conscription (so as to provide for an annual enlistment by lot instead of at the will of local military chiefs), and the creation of a right to question arrest by means of habeas corpus or other such proceedings. You might also point out to the President how much easier it. would be for the United States to lend its aid if necessary to assist in the conduct of free and orderly elections if such reforms were realized. ΚΝΟΣ. |