The protest printed below, against Article 15 of the Contract of
Withdrawal, was sent to the Haitian Secretary of Finance on July 30.
The undersigned bankers, merchants, and representatives of the
various branches of the financial and commercial activities in
Haiti have the honor to submit to the high appreciation of the
Secretary of State for Finance the following consideration:
They have been advised from certain sources that pressing
recommendations have been made to the Government of Haiti.
1. That a law be immediately voted by which would be prohibited
the importation or exportation of all money not Haitian, except
that quantity of foreign money which, in the opinion of the
Financial Adviser, would be sufficient for the needs of
commerce.
2. That in the charter of the Banque Nationale de la Republique
d'Haiti there be inserted an article giving power to the
Financial Adviser together with the Banque Nationale de la
Republique d'Haiti to take all measures concerning the
importation or exportation of non-Haitian monies.
The undersigned declare that the adoption of such a measure,
under whatever form it may be, would be of a nature generally
contrary to the collective interests of the Haitian people and
the industry of Haiti. It would be dangerous to substitute the
will of a single man, however eminent he might be, however
honorable, however infallible, for a natural law which
regulates the movements of the monetary circulation in a
country.
It would be more dangerous yet to introduce in the contract of
the Banque Nationale de la Republique d'Haiti a clause which
would assure this establishment a sort of monopoly in the
foreign money market, which constitutes the principal base of
the operations of high commerce, when it has already the
exclusive privilege of emission of bank notes. Such a clause
would make of all other bankers and merchants its humble
tributaries, obeying its law and its caprices....
(Signed) THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA; AMERICAN FOREIGN BANKING
CORPORATION; HAITIAN AMERICAN SUGAR CO.; RAPOREL S.S. LINE;
P. C. S.; ELECTRIC LIGHT CO.; PANAMA LINE; ED. ESTEVE & CO.;
CLYDE LINE; COMPTOIR COMMERCIAL; GEBARA & CO.; ALFRED VIEUX;
V. G. MAKHLOUF; N. SILVERA; SIMMONDS FRERES; ROBERTS, DUTTON &
CO.; WEST INDIES TRADING CO.; J. FADOUL & CO.; R. BROUARD; A. DE
MATTEIS & CO.; J. M. RICHARDSON & CO.; COMPTOIR FRANCAIS; H.
DEREIX; E. ROBELIN; F. CHERIEZ; I. J. BIGIO, AND GEO. H.
MACFADDEN.
"By Order of the American Minister"
Correspondence regarding the refusal of the Financial Adviser of Haiti,
an American, but an official of the Haitian Department of Finance, to
pay the salaries for the month of July, 1920, of the President and
certain other officials of the Haitian Republic, revealing that the
action was taken by order of the American Minister to Haiti, without
explanation and without authority in the Haitian Constitution or in the
Haiti-American Convention, was printed in the _Moniteur_ for August 14.