882.51/1468
The British Embassy to the Department of State12
Aide Memoire Respecting the Service of the Liberian Gold Loan of 1913 [1912]
The attention of His Majesty’s Government has been drawn to the inconvenience caused to the holders of the bonds of this loan by the irregularity of the payment of the coupons. This irregularity is no doubt mainly due to the general deficiency in the revenues of Liberia, but from information received by His Majesty’s Government it would appear that the difficulties in respect of the service of this loan have been largely increased by the methods adopted by Mr. Worley. He, it appears, has consistently adopted the practice of allowing funds to accumulate in Liberia and failing to make remittances until a round sum has accumulated, even though a smaller sum would suffice to meet one of the overdue coupons.
The Council of Foreign Bond Holders have specifically complained that although only £800 was required to provide sufficient funds to honour the coupon which was due for payment in July, 1920, no remittance was made by Mr. Worley until £6,000 had accumulated. The Council further complain that although that remittance was received in London on November 6th, 1921, the coupon for July 1920 was not advertised for payment until December 22nd. The serious objections to the practice adopted by Mr. Worley are obvious, but continued representations made to him by His Majesty’s Consul-General in Monrovia have failed to produce any satisfactory result, and all attempts to induce Mr. Worley to act in a more business-like way in making his remittances for the service of the loan have been fruitless.
- A copy of this undated aide-mémoire was transmitted to the Legation in Liberia on Apr. 1.↩