I have handed the same memorandum to the Italian Ambassador and to
the French and German Chargés d’Affaires.64
[Enclosure]
The Department of
State to the British
Embassy
Memorandum
In a memorandum submitted to the International Committee on
Liberia at the close of its third session last May the American
Government stated its belief that the purpose of a plan of
Liberian rehabilitation to be achieved through a period of
assistance, under appropriate international guarantees, would be
finally to provide for the benefit of the Liberian people
precisely that sovereignty and
[Page 749]
independence which had so frequently been
discussed by the Committee in connection with the apparent
reluctance of Liberia to delegate ample and adequate authority,
without which no plan of assistance could succeed.
The American Government added that the United States sought no
special advantage or position in Liberia, but only the welfare
and development of the Liberian people and the proper protection
of American nationals and investments, and that it was convinced
that the deplorable conditions prevailing in that country,
together with the inability or unwillingness of the present
administration to remedy them, were rightly matters of
international concern, to be solved through sustained
international cooperation. The United States has not abandoned
this policy.
With respect to the “plan of assistance”*, however, adopted by the Council of the
League on May 20, 1932, and subsequently transmitted to Liberia,
the American Government submitted a formal reservation reading
in part as follows:
[Here follow extracts from the reservation printed in full in
telegram No. 200, May 21, noon, from the Consul at Geneva, page 731.]
The full text of the American reservation is attached.
The American Government understands that a joint resolution with
respect to the plan of the International Committee was passed by
the Liberian legislature in special session on August 18, 1932.
From the text of the resolution, a copy of which is
appended,65 it
appears that this instrument would still further and very
materially weaken the plan, which was unacceptable to the
American Government in its original form because of its basic
weakness regarding the question of the delegation of
authority.
In the event that this resolution should be presented by Liberia
at the next meeting of the International Committee, scheduled to
begin on September 19, next, the American Government would
manifestly be unable either to approve the plan, and the
restrictive resolution based thereon, or to consent to transmit
them to the Finance Corporation of America and the Firestone
Plantations Company as the bases for a relinquishment or
diminution of their present rights in Liberia.
Washington,
August 25,
1932.
