File No. 763.72/6899
The Minister in Liberia ( Curtis) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 14.]
Sir: I have the honor to report for the further information of the Department in connection with the previously reported proposed convention, embracing the matters and things promised and undertaken by Liberia, Great Britain and France, quid pro quo, that the said convention was not proposed or suggested by the Liberian Government but by the Acting British Consul General, who represented that he was under instructions to insist upon the consummation of such a convention by and between the Government of Liberia on the one hand and the Governments of the United States, France, and Great Britain on the other, and that the Governments of the United States, France, and Great Britain were in complete accord on the matter.
In private conference between the representatives here of the latter Governments, and also in the conference with the Liberian Secretary of State, I declined to concur in the necessity or desirability for said convention and the Liberian Government was not insistent on any convention. However, to meet what the Liberian Government believed to be a condition precedent on the part of the British Government, a tentative draft of the proposed convention was made and submitted to the three foreign representatives concerned, which I promptly declined to sign or discuss until instructed in connection therewith.
I accordingly cabled the terms of said proposed convention to Department, and two days thereafter the British Consul General advised me of his receipt of instructions to delete all reference to the convention from the joint communication to be transmitted to the Liberian Government.
As Liberia considers the counsel of the Government of the United States both wise and disinterested, the subsequent bringing of the views of Department relative to the convention to its attention sufficed to effectually and finally dispose of the convention proposal and to write finis to the vexatious question of the deportation of the Germans and the corollaries thereto.
I have [etc.]