• U.S.

HAITI: Commission Returns

1 minute read
TIME

Tooting a shrill goodbye on its whistle, the cruiser U. S. S. Rochester carrying President Hoover’s commission to investigate Haitian politics, put out from Port-au-Prince, returned to Miami. Barefooted Haitians in floppy straw hats returned to their homes to mull over the week’s events.

With the cabled approval of President Hoover, 65-year-old Eugene Roy, broker, former President of the National Clearing House, was chosen to serve as temporary President of Haiti from the retirement of President Louis Borno (May 15) until a properly constituted presidential election is held “at the earliest possible date.”

Before sailing on the Rochester thin-haired William Allen White, peripatetic Kansas editor (Emporia Gazette), member of President Hoover’s commission, took occasion emphatically to deny that he had kissed or embraced a Negress on his arrival fortnight ago, as reported in the U. S. press. His version of the incident: When the Commission landed in Port-au-Prince a huge crowd was waiting on the pier. Prominent in the crowd was a white-haired old lady who fell on her knees before Editor White shrilly crying: “Deliver us! Deliver us!” Gallant Editor White made no promises, but blew her a kiss from his finger tips.

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