I had a call yesterday from Mr. Jesus Maria Troncoso, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of the Dominican Republic. He has been talking to the Bank of Canada and some of the Chartered Banks about revisions in the Dominican Banking and Currency Laws. Among other things, they are giving up the use of U.S. dollars and are issuing their own pesos which will be based on U.S. dollars.

He had been asked by his Government to discuss the question of an exchange of diplomatic representatives while he was in Ottawa. I explained to him that the difficulties of rapid expansion and the necessity to reciprocate with European countries who had been established in Ottawa for some time made it impossible to send a Minister to his country at present. He then asked whether we could receive a Dominican Minister without sending a Canadian to the Dominican Republic and I told him that I thought the Government would be unwilling to do this. I suggested that a Consul, or Consul General, in Ottawa would be able to deal quite satisfactorily with such business as might arise, pointing out that he would have the same access to this and other Departments as a Minister.

Mr. Troncoso was, I think, prepared to agree that, in point of fact, a Consul General would fill the bill. However, he was obviously under instructions to pursue the possibility of appointing a Minister as far as possible. His final suggestion was that the Dominican Ambassador in Washington might also be accredited to Canada and that the Canadian Minister in Havana might be accredited to the Dominican Republic. I pointed out that in the past we had been unwilling to enter into such arrangements, but indicated that the passage of time had somewhat altered the situation and said I would bring his suggestion to your attention for consideration. What I did not mention to him, but what must be considered, is the position of Haiti. In view of the rivalry between the two countries, it is practically essential that we treat them in the same way. Whether the accreditation of the Canadian Minister in Havana to both the Dominican Republic and Haiti would be acceptable to those two countries is something that will have to be explored.

Finally, Mr. Troncoso asked where these conversations could be continued. I did my best to suggest that no early resumption of the conversations was likely to prove fruitful, but agreed to his proposal that any further advances which the Dominican Government might wish to make could be taken up by their Embassy in Washington with ours.