File No. 882.51/815
The Chargé in Liberia (
Bundy) to
the Secretary of State
No. 220
Monrovia,
June 12, 1918.
Sir: For the information of the Department
I have the honor to transmit herewith copy of a communication with
its enclosures, addressed to the Legation by the Financial
Adviser.
This communication contains the views of the Financial Adviser
respecting a plan which he has proposed for the collection of taxes
and revenues in the interior. The enclosures to the communication
are the correspondence which has passed between the local manager of
the Bank of British West Africa, Ltd., and the Financial Adviser,
concerning the proposed plan.
There is not the slightest question about the urgent need of Liberia
employing for a period of years a commissioner general and four
assistant interior commissioners to aid the Government in its
administration of the hinterland. All these officials should be
American citizens. The bank appears, according to the statement of
the Financial Adviser, hostile to the proposition and seems to be in
a position to put obstacles in the way of its feeing carried out.
This is possible because, it will perhaps be remembered, the bank
has a lien on all the internal revenue, and under its agreement with
the Government, civil employees may not be increased without its
sanction. So, before the Government can provide, out of internal
revenues, the necessary salaries to pay the interior commissioners
it may desire to employ, the consent of the bank must be obtained.
This phase of the matter is fully discussed in the communication of
the Financial Adviser.
It is my belief, however, that the bank will yield the point when the
Government shows that the measures it proposes to take will result
in an efficient interior administration which will necessarily
increase materially the value of the bank’s security, and that this
matter of an improvement in Liberia’s interior administration is of
considerable interest to the United States.
I have [etc.]
[Page 527]
[Enclosure]
The Financial Adviser of Liberia
(
Worley) to the American Chargé (
Bundy)
Sir: I have the honor to enclose
herewith a copy of my letter, dated March 30, 1918, to the local
manager of the Bank of British West Africa outlining my plan for
the collection of internal revenue and the effective
administration and development of the interior, as well as the
maintenance of peace and order. On March 30, a copy of this
letter was informally forwarded to you and the Secretary of the
Treasury for the purpose of future discussion, perfection, and
elaboration. I also enclose a copy of a reply of the bank
manager dated April 3, 1918.1
The manager of the Bank of British West Africa here has advised
me that the whole subject of financial assistance to Liberia has
been taken up by his bank in London with the Foreign Offices of
Great Britain, France, and the United States, and that the
matter will doubtless receive consideration and some agreement
be reached for the maintenance of Liberia during the present
war. Nevertheless he has not ceased to urge me to agree to his
proposals here or some modification of them. I do not agree to
his proposals, but even if I did, it would seem superfluous to
discuss terms here when the subject is before the United States
Department of State for determination. I take it that if the
Department of State wishes any information or recommendation,
the same will be asked for. As this proposal of mine is a part
of the whole program, I have every reason to believe that some
reference will be made to this scheme for the collection of
taxes and administration of the interior, and I feel that
Washington should have a copy and be fully advised in the
premises.
The bank manager has told me verbally that the plan is feasible
and generally meets with his approval, but that the bank will
not consider the same by itself apart from the general subject
of a financial reform and reorganization here, together with a
change of “financial policy” that will give the bank a material
advantage and almost a free hand in Liberian finance and
affairs. As illustrative of what the bank desires I refer to my
letters to you dated January 14 and February 14,1 and also to your
despatch of May 24, 1918, transmitting a second proposal of the
bank made to the Secretary of the Treasury and Financial
Adviser.1 If
accepted, the bank’s proposals would mortgage Liberia’s future
and place her in the hands of Great Britain.
This administration of the interior is a part of the American
program of reform. I might say in passing that the bank has
appeared to be unfriendly to every measure in that program which
required its cooperation or assistance to carry it into
effect.
By Section 14 of the bank loan agreement of February 21,
1917,2 a copy of same was forwarded by
Liberia to the British Foreign Office to become later the
subject of possible diplomatic correspondence. This savors of
the political rather than of the commercial. The bank manager is
also the Acting British Consul General at Monrovia.
The bank will not agree to make any advances against the future
collections under this plan in order to put it into operation
and meet expenses for the first six months or so until the
preliminary assessment has advanced far enough to enable
collections to be made in sufficient amount to meet these
expenses and return the advances made by the bank. About $10,000
or $15,000 would be needed in advances to bring the officials
here and pay the necessary running expenses until the plan is in
full operation; otherwise it can not be instituted. If the
schools are not established at once and the chiefs partly
remunerated for opening the necessary roads, they will be
suspicious of and antagonistic to all efforts to operate the
plan. They are tired of promises which have not resulted in
performances.
In view of the large and unauthorized taxes, fines, and other
burdens placed upon them by commissioners in the past, the
chiefs and tribes have been conferring with a view to a united
opposition, by peaceable or forcible means, to the collection of
any further taxes, even to the authorized hut tax of $1.00 per
hut per annum. This would be a serious thing for the Government,
if effected, and the Secretary of the Treasury and Financial
Adviser have conferred with the bank manager with a view to
abolishing the collection of the hut taxes for
[Page 528]
the present, in view of the fact
that the Government has no ammunition to enforce its demands if
it meets with active resistance. The manager would not agree to
it and the Financial Adviser urged renewed efforts to secure
ammunition through the Acting British Consul General who is also
bank manager. He agreed to help in this. Even if there were
plenty of ammunition, the cost of subduing such a native
uprising would be enormous. This matter of taxation is probably
the only one on which all the tribes of the Republic could unite
against the Government.
A fairly good road extends along the Liberian frontier from the
English boundary to near Tappi, near the French boundary. It is
my plan to extend these ends down to Cape Mount and Cape Palmas
(which would give Liberia a road extending along its entire
boundary line) together with intermediate roads down to the
coast towns of Monrovia, Grand Bassa, Sino, and River Cess. This
would bring traffic which now goes to French and English
territory, down to the coast with resulting benefits to Liberia
commercially and economically. In anticipation of this road
building, one firm has secured the agency of a well-known
automobile and has imported seven auto trucks to bring native
produce from the interior. As soon as the roads are built others
will follow-as well as motorcycles.
It would be well if at least two of the district commissioners be
civil engineers in order to supervise the construction of roads,
bridges, and to assist in the boundary delimitation, if
necessary.
The district commissioners are to be peace officers. The military
will be used only for the purpose of guarding and escorting the
revenues collected and in case the district commissioners are
threatened with violence in the performance of their duties or
can not carry out their work in a peaceful manner. The Liberian
frontier force in the interior should be subject to the orders
of the Commissioner General to prevent abuses and secure
effective cooperation. This has worked well in practice recently
under Mr. Mitchell.
Secretary J. L. Morris and Major J. H. Anderson, after an
extended trip of inspection into the interior, state it as their
opinion that $200,000 per annum may easily be collected from the
interior the first year. I am quite certain that my figures of
prospective revenues are very conservative.
It is believed that my educational plan will make for a
homogeneous people as a population instead of a heterogeneous
number of tribes speaking different languages, many of whom are
at enmity with each other and most of them in passive opposition
to if not active rebellion against the Government which they do
not understand. The plan has worked well for peace and order in
the Philippine Islands, where more people spoke English in the
first ten years of our occupation than spoke Spanish during over
300 years of Spanish regime. A common language would bring about
a better understanding. The school teachers in the Philippine
Islands were the centers of propaganda in the interest of the
Government and through which the Government might make itself,
its aims, and objects known to the native population. Their
policy was one of attraction and helpfulness and they readily
secured the confidence of the natives and won them to the
Government.
The teachers could and would be of great assistance to the
district commissioners in Liberia.
One or two manual training schools here would be very profitable
to the Republic. Even the wildest natives show exceptional skill
in work in leather, iron, copper, aluminum and gold, as well as
weaving cloth. All of this could be developed by theoretical
training and practical operation under skilled supervision.
I would be willing to entrust some of the educational work to the
foreign missions now on this field, giving them such moral and
material assistance as might be possible in the way of erection
of school buildings, etc., and in return they becoming sort of
quasi-public officials under Government control and supervision,
as in some colonies in Africa. The school teachers could easily
secure the confidence of the natives who would go to them for
advice, and also to read and write such communications to and
from the Government as might be necessary for the purpose of an
interchange of ideas, transmission of instructions, or touching
any irregularity or oppression. I feel confident that the
mission boards now represented in Liberia would be glad and
ready to take up this larger field under Government aid and
supervision if they knew that it were possible. There are five
such boards together with some independent workers. A high
quality of men would be insured at a minimum cost to the
Government and with a maximum degree of efficiency.
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The supervising teachers and, if possible, the teachers in the
main centers of population should be young men imported from
America with such native assistants in the smaller near-by towns
as they could supervise. These elementary schools would serve as
feeders for the higher schools in the larger centers of
population. I am advised that the missions in Liberia have
native assistants now ready to take up this work. They have been
trained in their present schools here.
The Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department would
doubtless be able to select all the commissioners and teachers
needed for this work from men of experience in our insular
possessions.
The bank manager has repeatedly asked me to point out in what
definite way he might be able to cooperate and help Liberia. The
last paragraph of my letter to the bank manager is in answer to
this request. Although the law has been enacted authorizing the
auditor and it is generally known that he has been requested
from the United States Government, it is a matter of
considerable interest to the foreigners here as to why he has
not been detailed. It is thought by some that no earnest effort
has been made to secure an auditor and that the American
Government, the Financial Adviser, and the Liberian Government
are not sincere in their declared efforts to secure his
services.
I have [etc.]
[Subenclosure]
The Financial Adviser of Liberia
(
Worley) to the Manager of the Bank of British West Africa
(
W. H. Ross-Bell)
Monrovia,
March 30, 1918.
Sir: I have the honor to give you
below the plan which I have proposed to the Government of
Liberia for the collection of internal revenue. Although I have
explained this to you quite in extenso
several times, I would like to get it before you formally.
A line drawn 40 miles from and parallel with the coast would
include all the civilized towns and settlements. I purpose
dividing this coast division into three parts to be in charge of
the three receivers of customs in their respective districts for
the establishment and collection of internal revenue in the
manner hereinafter outlined for the boundary.
All of the interior beyond this 40-mile strip I would divide into
four districts by lines running at right angles with the coast.
Mr. T. C. Mitchell, the present American Commissioner General,
would be in charge of this interior at some point on the St.
Paul River near Tinsou or Bulikai, at least for the present. One
commissioner would be in charge of each district with a Liberian
directly under him for purposes of instruction. I can secure
competent men for this work who have had from five to ten years
experience in larger fields than this in the insular possessions
of the United States.
There is at present authority for the assessment of a hut tax of
$1 per annum. Each commissioner would go through his district
assessing the property and preparing duplicate tax registers,
one copy of which would be filed in the Treasury Department at
Monrovia. Stub or duplicate tax receipts would be printed to
correspond with the numbers in the tax registers. Additional
receipts, suitably numbered, would be provided for huts
subsequently erected and assessed.
As far as possible, these taxes would be assessed and collected
through the chiefs, holding them responsible for same. I would
utilize them to the greatest possible extent as long as they are
loyal.
Periodically a Treasury official, under escort of a commissioned
officer of the frontier force and suitable guard of soldiers,
would make a tour collecting this money and transporting it to
Monrovia. Each district commissioner would make cut a voucher,
giving the details of the money being transmitted, which both he
and the Treasury official would sign in duplicate, one copy
being retained by the commissioner in book form and the other
accompanying the money to the Treasury Department.
It would require about two years to fully assess a district, and
thereafter the taxes should steadily increase in each district
except some village or town be visited by fire. Any material
reduction in the taxes of any district would have to be
explained in detail in writing and be authenticated by the
Commissioner General and, if possible, by the Treasury official.
After two years the assessment
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and collection of these taxes in each
district might be gradually turned over to the Liberian
understudy.
At my request, Mr. Mitchell has made an estimate of the huts in
the section immediately along the boundary, and he reports that
there are some 100,000 of them. Everyone here who has any
knowledge of the boundary agrees that this is conservative. Mr.
Mitchell knows nothing of the great interior between the 40-mile
strip along the coast and the boundary. In the intermediate
interior are the populous Vais, Golas, Kpwessis, Grebo, etc.
Accepting his estimate for the section immediately along the
boundary alone, we might easily count on $100,000 the first
year. I purpose spending not to exceed one-half of this amount
for the cost of establishing the system and expense of
collection, schools, and roads running down to the coast. The
cost of collection would include travel allowance. The one thing
which every native chief wants is a school to be able to “make a
book.” It is the height of his ambition that his boy shall know
how to read and write. These teachers would be carefully
selected with a view to their morals and character. Some of
them, especially supervising teachers, might have to be
imported. We have had splendid results in our insular
possessions where the native children were taught to read,
write, and do number work. We found that some of the boys had
the capacity to take a higher education and these were sent to
the larger centers for advanced work in high schools or
preparatory schools. If any of them developed and showed they
were capable of going further, we sent them to a college located
at the capital where they would come into contact with the
Government, which theretofore was an intangible something they
could not understand. Liberia College might be developed into
the needed college here. Manual or technical training and
education is also a part of this educational plan and some of
the boys would take this course and be taught the dignity of
labor by precept and example.
A common language would be taught them and their friendly contact
with the Government, that was giving them something in return
for their taxes, would make for peace and good order among them
and in their relations with the Government.
Heretofore the native claims that he has cut the roads and kept
them open without remuneration. It is a part of my plan to pay
him, in part, for this work. It would not be much, but it would
be a source of encouragement and stimulation.
These three expenses would not be allowed to exceed $50,000,
which would leave $50,000 per annum, which we are not receiving
now from this territory.
The great intermediate interior should produce $100,000 and the
coast, with its various forms of taxes, etc., should produce
$100,000. If the plan of returning 50 per cent to each district
in betterment and education, etc., were adhered to, this would
still leave a net total internal revenue of $150,000, which is
altogether possible even in these times. Later, under intensive
production and normal trade conditions, this should be much
increased.
Of course the Government will continue to receive the 20 per cent
surtax on all imports established by the act approved March 12,
1915, and the 20 per cent on exports established by the act
approved February 1, 1918. During the last fiscal year the
former amounted to $20,077.26 and the latter is estimated to be
more than $5,000 per annum based on the last full year for which
figures are available.
The Treasury is now sending a representative up and down the
coast in the interest of the internal revenue, and you have
doubtless noted the marked increase in these revenues within the
past few months.
I attach a rough map with explanatory footnotes.1 The part nearest to the
boundary and within the dotted line is the section Mr. Mitchell
has estimated on.
The one moral aid which you could give the Government and the
Financial Adviser at present that would outweigh almost any
other would be to assist in having an auditor sent out under the
enabling act approved August 2, 1917. He would be of great
assistance in establishing this system of taxation and
collection and in keeping proper checks on it and the collection
and accounting for moneys. The Government of the United States
is now seeking a suitable man for this position. I believe the
auditor would be of material assistance to the bank, even though
indirectly.
Very truly yours,
