882.51/995
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury (Glass)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of October 9 in which you state that the final form of the Financial Agreement for Liberia should depend upon the result of negotiations with the governments of Great Britain and France and that you are awaiting information on that subject.
On October 25, 1918, I addressed you36 in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of October 17,37 making certain inquiries concerning the extent to which the credit of $5,000,000, recently opened to the Republic of Liberia, could be made available to that government. I advised you that Mr. Worley, American Receiver General of Customs of Liberia, was expected shortly in Washington and stated that before expressing the views of the Department of State on the questions which you presented, I desired to discuss with Mr. Worley the whole scheme of the financial problems of the Republic of Liberia. In conclusion, I advised you that as soon as Mr. Worley’s views had been obtained, I would communicate with you again.
Upon the arrival of Mr. Worley and after consultation with him, I suggested to Mr. Worley that he confer with your Department on [Page 491] the matter, and I am advised a meeting was held in the latter part of October at your Department at which Mr. Rathbone, Mr. Strauss, and Mr. Hand were present and Mr. Worley set forth the situation and presented the views of this Department. At this meeting it was suggested by the officials of the Department of the Treasury that an attempt be made to induce the British and French to withdraw from the Liberian Customs Receivership Administration without the refunding by the Treasury of the United States of the loan of 1912, but that if Great Britain and France could not be induced to withdraw by negotiations so that their rights could be disposed of otherwise, the Treasury of the United States would consent to make an advance sufficient to pay off the outstanding bonds of the loan of 1912. This suggestion of the Department of the Treasury, that the Department of State endeavor to secure the withdrawal of Great Britain and France, was confirmed by the letter of your department of November 11, 1918.38 In compliance therewith, I thereupon approached the British and French Governments through diplomatic channels with an endeavor to obtain their withdrawal from their participation in the Receivership and to consent to the establishment of an all-American Receivership. Diplomatic correspondence and negotiations on this subject have now been proceeding with Great Britain and France for more than a year. Final replies from the British and French Governments have been received. Copies of these replies have been sent to you informally upon their receipt and are enclosed herewith for your information.39 You will note from these replies that Great Britain consents to withdraw from the Receivership but makes two or three conditions or reservations which are unacceptable. France, in substance, refuses to withdraw and makes claim to certain conditions which cannot be granted.
About September 19, 1919, the Department of the Treasury informally suggested that its representative, Mr. Rathbone, who would shortly arrive in France to engage in financial negotiations with the French and other governments might, be able to secure the consent of France to withdraw from the Receivership. It is now understood from a telegram received from Mr. Rathbone through this Department for your Department40 that, in his view, it would be very difficult and unwise to impose as a condition to the conversion of the French demand obligations the assent of the French to withdrawal from the Liberian Receivership. In view of the failure of the diplomatic correspondence and negotiations and the unfavorable [Page 492] opinion of Mr. Rathbone, the only way which appears open to secure the withdrawal of the British and French Governments and to bring the International Receivership to a close, is by refunding the remainder of the loan of 1912. I have, therefore, the honor to suggest that the necessary funds be advanced by the Treasury Department in order to refund the outstanding bonds of the loan of 1912 and thereby bring to an end the International Receivership at as early a date as practicable, in accordance with the committments which have been made in behalf of the Government of the United States.
I have [etc.]
- Letter not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1918, p. 543.↩
- Ibid., p. 544.↩
- French reply not printed; for British reply, see p. 484.↩
- Telegram not printed.↩