File No. 882.42/9.
The Acting Secretary of State to the President of the American Colonization Society.
Washington, October 7, 1911.
Sir: Your attention is invited to the Department’s letter of June 27 last, enclosing copy of one received from Mr. Ernest Lyon, the Liberian Consul General at Baltimore, relative to the payment to the Liberian Government of the accrued Donovan Fund, for the purpose of which the Department has been asked to designate an official to approve the Society’s accounts, to receive the balance due, amounting to about $60,000, and to give the Society proper acquittance. No reply has been received by the Department to this letter of June 27, 1911.
From the files of the Department it appears that on February 20, 1909, you wrote to Mr. Robert Bacon, then Secretary of State, to the effect that the American Colonization Society had approximately $22,000 which was available for educational purposes of the public schools of Liberia, and an annual income of about $3,500 which, under certain conditions, might also become available for the same purpose. To insure this money being applied to the specific purpose mentioned by you, it was suggested by you that the funds be received by the Department and by it transmitted to the American Minister at Monrovia subject to the order of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Liberia to be expended solely for educational purposes of the public schools and that in the event of doubt and misunderstanding arising in connection with the expenditure or disbursement of the moneys thus transmitted, all such questions should be submitted by the American Minister to a committee of three, composed of himself, the Secretary of State of Liberia, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Your proposal was referred to the Liberian Government through the American Minister at Monrovia who, in reply, forwarded to the Department copy of a note from the Liberian Minister for Foreign Affairs suggesting certain modifications to your proposition. It appears that a copy of this despatch from the American Minister at Monrovia, with its enclosure, was transmitted to you in a letter dated May 14, 1909, which was addressed to you at 1821 Jefferson Place, but that no reply has been received to that letter.
The Department now transmits copy of a recent letter which has been received from Mr. Ernest Lyon1 enclosing copy of a telegram and a letter from the General Superintendent of Public Instruction of Liberia, appointing him agent of the Department of Education of that Republic with full power to conclude all necessary arrangements with the American Colonization Society with reference to the Donovan Fund.
I am [etc.]
- The letter of Sept. 27, 1911, printed ante.↩