Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1928, Volume III

882.51/1974

The Assistant Secretary of State (Castle) to the Vice President of the National City Bank of New York (Hoffman)

Washington, January 21, 1928.

My Dear Mr. Hoffman: I have received your letter of January 16 transmitting copy of a cable received by you from Mr. Birkmire⁶ regarding the necessity of replacing Mr. Colegrove, at present Assistant Auditor of Liberia, at an early date, and have noted your request that the Department discuss the matter of his replacement with General Mclntyre.⁷

With every desire in the world to be helpful to you in connection with the administration of the Liberian loan, I regret very much to state that this appears to be, under the terms of Article 9 of the Loan Agreement,⁸ a matter concerning only the Bank and the Liberian Government and one in which the Department can take no action no matter how informal or slight, even to the extent of consulting General Mclntyre. However, I am quite certain that General Mclntyre will be glad to cooperate with you in this matter if you approach him directly and in this connection, 1 may say that I have no objection to your showing him this letter.

Regretting that in this instance the Department is unable to act on your request, I am [etc.]

W. R. Castle, Jr.

6. Neither printed.
7. Major General Frank McIntyre, chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department.
8. Signed September 1, 1926; Foreign Relations, vtbf, vol. ii, pp. 574, 579.