7 December 1929 to 28 February 1930 · Haitianspan
The Nation names it a massacre and Hoover asks for a commission
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The Nation gave the killings at Cayes the name that stuck, and self-defence stopped being an available explanation. On 7 December, with the strike already breaking under the marine brigade and the cruiser Galveston up from Guantanamo showing the flag, President Hoover asked Congress to set up a body that would work out when the United States could leave Haiti and how it should behave until then. He had wanted out since his inauguration in March. Within ten days the curfew ended, the papers reappeared, the Damien quarrel was settled and Dr Freeman was finished. On 7 February 1930 Hoover named five men under W. Cameron Forbes, a Boston lawyer who had governed the Philippines and who noted privately that his instructions had been made very clear to him. The commission landed at Port-au-Prince on 28 February to a nineteen-gun salute and to banners from the Union Patriotique demanding the occupation end. General Russell's reception the next day was boycotted. Roumain published his refusal, saying the negro Jacques Roumain did not condescend to mix with whites.
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