1942: Dominican Republic

In an unopposed election held May 16 General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was unanimously chosen President for a third term. The then President, Manuel de Jesús Troncosa de la Concha, promptly resigned and General Trujillo took office at once, thus once more officially heading the Government which he has, in fact, controlled for a number of years.

The population of Sosua, the refugee settlement in the Dominican Republic is 482. Though small, it is important as a laboratory experiment for future refugee settlements. The members are carefully selected, primarily for their experience in agriculture, and are settled and financed by the Dominican Republic Settlement Association of New York. The land is a donation from General Trujillo. The Dominican Government has guaranteed the settlers full and complete freedom. Most of them are Jewish but the settlement contains some Protestants and Catholics as well. After Pearl Harbor further settlement was discontinued for the duration of the war. It is planned for the duration to keep Sosuan economy on a subsistence basis, but following the war, it is hoped to open local Dominican markets and also to grow cash crops to be marketed in Puerto Rico. A report of the survey made by the Falk Foundation and concerning the Dominican Republic's refugee absorptive capacity, recently published by the Brookings Institute, is pessimistic on the whole. It estimates 5,000 as an upper limit of refugees who could be accommodated, rather than President Trujillo's 100,000, and it is critical of the management to date. Nevertheless, President Trujillo has made another attempt to build up the population of the Republic by a proposal to Vichy to transport to the island and care for 3,500 homeless European children.

1941: Dominican Republic

On the occasion of the fiftieth birthday of Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo, the power behind the presidential chair, an assembly of 600 prominent citizens, members of the one political party, acclaimed him candidate for president in the elections scheduled for May 16, 1942. On Dec. 16 the voters were asked to pass on a number of constitutional changes backed by General Trujillo. These include suffrage for women; a reduction in the number of Congressional representatives; the extension of the president's term from four to six years; and the suppression of the vice-presidency.

With the other Caribbean nations, the Dominican Republic declared war on the Axis Powers after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lend-lease aid has been provided the Government by the United States for the purchase of armaments.

Export-Import Bank credits to the Republic total $3,300,000. Part of this has been applied to the construction of a slaughterhouse and refrigerating plant, the meat to be sent to Puerto Rico, where the increase in United States military and naval forces provides a ready market.

The resumption of British purchases of Caribbean sugar meets the serious problem of marketing the current Dominican sugar crop. The British Government has agreed to take the entire 1941-42 crop at a guaranteed minimum price, the final price depending on the Anglo-United States deal with Cuba. Since the minimum price would be higher than Dominican sugar producers have been getting in the past years, when sugar sold as low as one cent a pound, the British agreement should help stabilize economic conditions. The basic quota for sugar permitted to enter the United States is small — 3,000 tons out of a total output for 1940-41 of 400,000 metric tons.

A further milestone in the Good Neighbor policy was passed when, on April 1, the Dominican government officially resumed collection of its own customs. The United States has, thus, abandoned the general receivership of Dominican customs which it has exercised since 1905.

A Central Bank was established late in December, with an authorized capital of $1,000,000, to be supplied by the government. This Banco de la Reservas de la República Dominicana takes over the five local branch offices of the National City Bank of New York. Private banking in the Republic is now exclusively in the hands of two Canadian concerns.

According to an October report of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association, there are 413 refugee settlers at Sosua, where 415 acres of virgin land have been cleared and 3,800 acres are being used as pasture. The costs of settlement per family, not including the initial capital investment, are about $2,000. Under a grant from the Falk Foundation, Professor Dana Muro will survey the possibilities of extensive refugee settlement in the Republic. A study is also being made by a specialist in tropical medicine of the susceptibility of newly arrived settlers to tropical diseases. North American experts in rural electrification, tropical forestry and sanitation are assisting the Sosua settlement and plans to grow coconuts, cocoa, spices, tropical woods and other products marketable in the United States, are being encouraged by the United States Department of Agriculture. See also PAN-AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

1940: Dominican Republic

Refugee Settlement.

The Sosua agricultural settlement, contracted for Jan. 30, is the outcome of an offer made to the Evian Intergovernmental Committee on Political Refugees in 1938. The 26,000-acre tract, a property abandoned by the United Fruit Company some years ago as unsuitable for commercial banana culture, though adequate for subsistence crops, was given by General Rafael Trujillo to the Dominican Republic Settlement Association of New York. An initial group of five hundred settlers was contracted for, but it was thought that the settlement might absorb as many as 25,000. The first colonists arrived early in May, and the colony seems to be now satisfactorily launched, with about three hundred settlers established by the end of the year, and another thousand selected and awaiting transportation. These agricultural settlers are granted exemption from all entry taxes, may become citizens within one year, and are guaranteed 'legal and economic equality, with full religious freedom.' Both Jews and non-Jews are admitted. The immigrants so far have come largely from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria. An adjacent tract of 50,000 acres has since been made available to the Sosua settlement. In addition, a 10,000-acre tract has been set aside by the Republic for Spanish refugees.

The Dominican Republic is practically the only area in Latin America open for large-scale resettlement of refugees from Central Europe. The South American countries which admitted them in the tens of thousands, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Bolivia, are all unwilling to receive any more. The objection to Jewish refugees seems to be their tendency to flock to cities, where they compete with native commercial and professional interests. In Bolivia, Chile, and most systematically in the Dominican Republic, an attempt has been made to steer them into agriculture.

Finance and Trade.

The capital that came with the European refugees has helped the Republic to establish a sounder credit. A striking increase in exports from the Republic to Canada, which in 1940 rose to a value of $2,123,000, as compared with $16,000 in 1939, is the result of a trade agreement concluded with the Dominion of Canada. A $3,000,000 credit has been granted by the Export-Import Bank, to be spent in harbor development and highway improvement, this latter to Samana Bay, which has long been considered by the United States Navy valuable as a base. Since about 70 per cent of total Dominican exports are normally marketed in Europe — sugar is the country's chief crop — the general trade situation in 1940 was difficult. The budget for the year, slightly higher than that for 1939, placed revenues at $12,140,000 and expenditures at $12,135,000.

'An additional step in the development and coordination of the Good Neighbor policy,' to quote the State Department's announcement, was taken when, on Sept. 24, a new treaty was signed, to replace that of 1924, by which the United States agreed to relinquish the customs receivership which it has exercised ever since 1905. The servicing of Dominican bonds will now be guaranteed by a lien on general government revenues.

Politics.

The death of Jacinto B. Peynado, March 7, elevated to the presidency Vice-President Manuel de Jesús Troncoso de la Concha. The new President has been described as 'another presidential figurehead,' since Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo, who has been officially designated Benefactor and, as such, enjoys legal status coordinate with that of the President, wields the real power and continues to conduct all the important business of the Republic. He has recently affirmed the government's pledge to cooperate in any way possible with the defense plans of the United States.

The second Conference on the Caribbean was held, at the invitation of the Dominican government, in Ciudad Trujillo, May 31 to June 6. Supposedly limited to cultural and economic questions, Cuba injected an embarrassing political note when it introduced a motion for a 'joint protectorate' over European colonies in the Western Hemisphere. The Conference approved a resolution urging that the control of all airlines in the Hemisphere be restricted to citizens of the American republics. The first of these Caribbean conferences was held in Havana; the third will meet in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, early in 1941.

1939: Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic informed the Evian Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees that there was room in that small country for as many as 100,000 immigrants, if the necessary financing were forthcoming. The Republic requires that each refugee pay a landing tax of $500. It was thus hoped that the colonization of German Jewish refugees on the island might yield the Government considerable revenue, while at the same time national development might be substantially furthered. A plan for such colonization was outlined in January by the Dominican consul general in London. Although this scheme was denied by the Dominican legation in Berlin, a contract with the Dominican Government for the settlement of political refugees from Europe is about to be signed.

During the United States Navy's winter maneuvers in the Caribbean, Samana Bay, on the east coast of Santo Domingo, was made available to the fleet without restriction. The decree permitting its use stated that the Dominican Republic was prompted by a desire to cooperate with the United States in plans for general Western Hemisphere defense. Ever since Civil War days, Samana Bay has been suggested as a possible United States naval base.

The budget for 1939 is slightly lower, in both receipts and expenditures, than that for 1938, but higher than the actual returns for 1937. Total receipts in the 1939 budget are estimated at 11,595,000 pesos and expenditures at 11,483,000 pesos.

1938: Dominican Republic

In an uncontested election in May, Dr. Jacinto B. Peynado, the personal candidate of his predecessor, Rafael Trujillo, was chosen President. His inauguration on August 16 marked the nominal retirement of the former dictator from power, but exiled opposition leaders, who are being urged to organize in a movement with Angel Morales, former Minister to the United States, as its head, have charged that his retirement was merely a subterfuge, forced by the border trouble with Haiti. This dispute was ended with the signing of an agreement on January 31.

In the spring the Dominican Republic submitted to the Pan American Union, with Colombia, a joint draft for an American League of Nations. It failed to receive consideration at the Eighth Pan American Conference at Lima (see PERU). The draft provided, also, for recognition of the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague.

The budget for 1938 estimates receipts at 11,693,770 pesos; expenditures at 11,682,279 pesos. For settlement of the Haitian-Dominican dispute see HAITI.