882.00/831: Telegram
The Chargé in Liberia (Hall) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 25—3:43 p.m.]
88. There are being circulated in Monrovia several forged documents, one of them, purporting to be a Legation despatch which gives details of the activities and findings of the International Commission,5 reports a conversation with Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (in which it was stated that the British Government was going to seize Liberia) and strongly criticizes the Liberian Government. Another document, purporting to be Department instructions to Dr. Johnson,6 informs him that an American secret service reporter [Page 334] would accompany him and also criticizes the Liberian Government. Copies of these documents are being sent by mail. Other documents which I have not seen purport to be Legation telegrams to the Department.
Though the documents are in the hands of the Liberian Government, which apparently believes them to be genuine, the Legation has no inquiry concerning them. Secretary Barclay has publicly spoken of them and bitterly condemned the United States Government and Legation. Thomas J. R. Faulkner read them at a mass meeting, and President King showed them to the Acting Financial Adviser, McCaskey, who declared them to be forgeries. I have been unable to ascertain the source of these documents, but I suspect the Liberian Government to be circulating them.