Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/280

As soon as he had been elected, General Nord Alexis asserted his determination to enforce a strict respect of the public funds. There were rumors of frauds having been perpetrated in the consolidation of the floating debt which had taken place under President Sam's administration. On the 22d of March, 1903, President Nord Alexis instructed a Commission to investigate the matter; and it was found that the Haitian people had been defrauded of over $1,257,993. The case was referred to the courts; and after a legal inquiry which lasted more than ten months the Chamber of Council (grand jury) of Port-au-Prince indicted Joseph de la Myre, a Frenchman, and late director of the National Bank of Haiti; Georges Oelrich, Rodolph Tippenhauer, Poute de Puybaudet,—the two former Germans and the latter a Frenchman,—all three employed in the National Bank; Vilbrun Guillaume, former Secretary of War; G. Gédéon, former Attorney-General; B. Saint-Victor, former Secretary of Exterior Relations; Hérard Roy, former Secretary of the Treasury; Démosthènes Sam, Lycurgue Sam, J. C. Arteaud, and Auguste Léon. The "consolidation" scandal caused a considerable amount of agitation. The indicted parties were influential and well-known men. Their friends did all in their power to prevent their being tried. The National Bank of Haiti went so far as to publicly declare that it would no longer give any help to the Haitian Government if its former employés implicated in the frauds were not set free and allowed to leave the country without any further trouble. In spite of his personal sympathy for many of the offenders and in spite of the pressure brought to bear on him, President Nord Alexis remained firm in his determination not to interfere in the matter, whilst the Haitian people turned a deaf ear to all threats and entreaties; they calmly awaited the conclusion of the case. On the 28th of November, 1904, the indicted parties appeared before the Criminal Tribunal (Cour d'Assises) of Port-au-Prince. The proceedings, which lasted nearly a month, were all public. The Ministers of France and Germany personally attended the