29106: lyall (comment) reparations etc (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

lyall opines:

The payment by haiti to france is most analagous to a provision in the Treaty 
of Paris of 1783 in which Gr Britain recognized the independence of the 
colonies in North America. According to the Wikipedia entry it is  Article 5 of 
that treaty in which the government of the United States would entreat the 
individual states to  provide for the "provide for the restitution of all 
estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real 
British subjects".

This never happened. The usa stiffed the very first treaty it ever signed. But 
the Brits didn't take it too hard and traded with the colonies anyway. That was 
not the case with Hayti and France.