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June 14 1913.

My dear Mr. President:-

Governor Osborn is preparing for the trip to Haiti and Santo Domingo.
Owing to the fact that it is not easy to move from place to place
down there in the West Indies, it has occurred to me that it might be
worth while to have the gunboat PETREL, which is now at Galveston and
which has asked the Department for permission to go to Havana in order
to give the crew shore leave for a few days, take the Governor from
Havana to Haiti and Santo Domingo, stopping at such points as he needs
to visit.

I have been looking at the charts and find that the Mole St.
Nicholas, which we discussed, is a very desirable harbor. It is about
a mile and a half across at the entrance and runs back probably between
three and four miles. For the first half of the way it is a hundred
feet deep or more, and then for here the remaining distance runs from one
hundred down to thirty-five. I an satisfied that it will be of great
value to us and even if it were not valuable to us it is worth while
to take it out of the market so that no other nation will attempt to
secure a foothold there. I would suggest for your consideration the
following proposition, namely:

That we shall negotiate for a strip of land twenty miles wide,

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