882.20/433: Telegram
The Minister in Liberia (Walton) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:56 p.m.]
16. Department’s No. 6, March 16, 8 p.m. Aide-mémoire was handed me after conversation with Secretary of State relative to informal remarks of French Chargé d’Affaires. The Secretary of State recalled a statement made to me on a previous occasion by the President that the Liberian Government would look with favor on the establishment by the United States of air and naval bases in Liberia.
Text of aide-mémoire follows:
It will be recalled that on October 8th last, in the course of a conversation which His Excellency the President had with the American Minister at the Executive Mansion, the President took occasion to invite attention of [to?] the apprehension on part of the Liberian Government concerning what may have been agreed upon between Mr. Chamberlain and Herr Hitler during their conference at Munich in September last regarding the conflicting claims in the colonial sphere. This apprehension was intensified by the fact that Herr Hitler seemed to nave attached a great deal of importance to the question of the return of German colonies.
The President at the time stressed the point that it may be possible that an understanding at the expense of and to the detriment of third parties may have been agreed upon or might likely be agreed upon by the two statesmen.
You will perhaps remember that the substance of the President’s conversation with you on October 8 last, relative to the matter mentioned above was the object of a note to you on October 10th 1938, for the purpose of being brought to the attention of your Government, whose advice in the premises the Government of Liberia solicited.2
It should also be pointed out that at a subsequent date you were good enough as to advise the President that your Government felt that no justification existed at the time for the apprehension entertained by the Liberian Government.3
[Page 560]That the apprehensions of the Liberian Government were nevertheless not unfounded would seem to be indicated by a query made to the Liberian Secretary of State by the French Chargé d’Affaires when he called at the Department of State on February 22nd last. In an informal discussion of the international situation Mr. Emanuelli referred to the alliance between France and Great Britain and said that in the event either of their possessions in West Africa were attacked they would jointly defend each other.
He then wanted to Know from me, he was at pains to explain, quite informally, what actual military defense, if any, would the Liberian Government put up in the event of war, and Liberia was attacked by Germany.
This enquiry relates to Liberia’s geographical and strategical position in relation to the British and French West African colonies of Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. An undefended Liberia, situated on the flanks of the said colonies would in the event of war offer an attractive point of entrance for German attack against either or both of the said possessions.
It would appear desirable that Liberia, in its own interests as an independent state, should either make adequate arrangement to defend itself against a possible attack or correlate its defenses with that of the two Governments whose frontiers march with our own.
What the Liberian Government feels is that unless it is able to prepare and maintain its own defenses whilst remaining neutral, it might have to face the necessity of having to correlate its defenses with those of the adjacent European possessions or face the possibility of either France or Great Britain or both taking joint or individual action to secure that an undefended Liberia be not made the base of a possible attack against their possessions in this region.
Owing to the importance which the Liberian Government attaches to this matter and by reason of the traditional friendship which has always existed between the Governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Liberia, the latter Government would appreciate any suggestion which you may think proper to give as to the most advisable course to be followed in the circumstances.
- See telegram No. 77, October 11, 1938, 4 p.m., from the Minister in Liberia, Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. ii, p. 839.↩
- See telegram No. 52, October 15, 1938, 3 p.m., to the Minister in Liberia, ibid., p. 840.↩