August to 22 November 1946 · Haitianspan
Foreign governments strike the socialist clauses out of Haiti's constitution
›Read the full entryClose
Estime announced a programme no Haitian president had attempted: independence for the legislature and the courts, an end to American control of Haitian finances, legal parties free to attack the government, a free press, trade unions, and wider schooling. He had money behind him. Coffee, bananas and sisal were selling well, mahogany handicrafts had become a trade, and vetiver oil distilled from a Haitian grass had grown into an industry out of SHADA, so revenue and the trade balance in 1946 stood at the highest figures independent Haiti had ever recorded. The programme required a constitution. Early drafts described Haiti as socialist, restored the ban on foreigners owning land, barred foreigners from conducting business, nationalised the clergy and gave trade unions explicit legal standing. The United States, Britain, France, Switzerland and the Vatican protested, together with the merchant houses. Most of those provisions were gone from the text enacted on 22 November 1946. Estime kept the sovereign right to write laws and lost the ability to write the ones that would have mattered.
A code like HT-WIB-000044 is a bates number. It marks one page of our stamped scan of the book, so the same page can be found again by anyone working from the same copy. Open one to see every entry drawn from that page.