The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

and technology into the economy. 40
The Roosevelt Administration was approached for
aid in enacting laws that would, according to Cordell Hull, ease the entry of readily
assimilable “neo-white” settlers. 41
Cooperation at the Evian council was also seen as a
possible inducement to end United States control of Dominican customs and perhaps
represented a form of penance for potentially jeopardizing Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor
Policy (and American regional hegemony) towards the nations of Latin America. 42
Trujillo was, after all, a dictator who obtained the reins of power in 1930 as the
consequence of an eight year U.S. Marine Corps occupation of the island from 1916-
1924. 43 Rumors of clandestine bribes and a desire to develop unpopulated land have also
been suggested as motives for Trujillo’s willingness to admit Jewish refugees. 44
The
Secretary of Legation Robert Mills McClintock clearly recognized that the Dominican
agreement to participate in the Evian Conference was primarily to “make a show of
cooperating in a policy” initiated by Roosevelt and supported by the American
Government. 45
Despite such pretenses the President agreed to pursue the possibility that
the Dominican Republic would provide a “supplemental Jewish homeland.” 46
40 Laurence Duggan, Chief of the State Department Latin American Division, analysis of Dominican
immigration policy, 29 January 1938, 839-51/4570, RG 59, NA. Ibid., 144; Kaplan, “A Very Modest
Experiment,” 132.
41 Chief of Visa Division Avra Warren to Norweb, April 29 and October 12, 1938, 839.55/75 and 87,
RG 59, NA. Ibid., 144. See also Memo by Hull, July 27, 1938, 939. SS/85, Re 59, NA and Memo by
Warren, May 2, 1939, 839.55/85, RG 59, NA.
42 A treaty was adopted between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. in 1907 in which the War
Department Bureau of Insular Affairs established and controlled the General Receivership of Dominican
Customs in which 55 percent of import duties were utilized to finance the island’s national debt. Ibid., 14.
43 Ibid., 2.
44 Ibid., 114.
45 “Outline of the Eighth Year, “November 7, 1938, 840.48 Refugees/1046, RG 59, NA. Ibid., 144.
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