882.51a/90
Mr. Nelson Stuart, Assistant Trust Officer of the National City Bank of New York, to the Secretary of State
Sir: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of January 30 with reference to our letter of January 2746 in which we quoted a cable [Page 460] received from Mr. John Loomis, Financial Adviser to the Republic of Liberia under the Loan Agreement dated September 1, 1928 [1926].
There does not appear to be any provision in the Agreement as to the appointment of an Acting Financial Adviser during the absence of the Financial Adviser. The importance of a proper appointment in such a case from our position as Fiscal Agent is found in the last paragraph of Article XI, providing that funds in the hands of the Fiscal Agent shall only be expended upon the request of the Secretary of the Treasury of the Republic of Liberia, certified and approved in manner and form satisfactory to the Fiscal Agent by the Financial Adviser. In the present instance the appointment of Mr. McCaskey would be satisfactory to us but we feel that a confirmation to Mr. Loomis on the part of the State Department would tend to strengthen his official status as the Acting Financial Adviser and would establish a precedent to be followed in future cases.
We have no knowledge as to the recommendation of Mr. McCaskey for the position of Acting Financial Adviser, other than that contained in the cable from the Financial Adviser quoted in our letter of January 27.
As requested in your letter, we are pleased to enclose herewith such biographic data concerning Mr. McCaskey46 as we find in our files.
Very truly yours,