882.20/442
The Minister in Liberia ( Walton ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s telegram No. 15, April 18, 7 p.m. and to report that the impelling reason for anxiety manifested by Firestone officials here has been based on the possibility of such a coup. This feeling is shared by Liberian authorities, the British and French representatives.
The suspicion is entertained by Liberians and others at this capital that German nationals are supplied with arms and ammunition; that the secret meetings they are holding have to do with the critical international situation, and that in the event of war Germany, owing to Liberia’s strategic geographical position, would not hesitate to make a desperate attempt to seize the Government radio station and lighthouse.
[Page 568]In the opinion of the Liberian Government, French, British and Firestone representatives, if precautionary measures were immediately adopted by the government, there should be less likelihood of a coup if armed German nationals staged a surprise attack. It has been pointed out that if several hundred members of the Frontier Force were stationed in Monrovia it would be of paramount importance to supply them with machine guns and ammunition. It requires no stretch of the imagination to picture the ineffective opposition from the Frontier Force if armed only with rifles of comparatively ancient make and the world-be invaders equipped with machine guns and other modern types of firearms.
The Department is cognizant of the negligible number of machine guns available for use should it be necessary for the Frontier Force to repel an attack from within. In this connection, the Liberian Government’s request made through me in the last paragraph of my telegram No. 21, April 12, 5 p.m., was predicated on informal action taken by the Department in the fall of 1938.11
The Great Britain and France Intelligence Service are aware that twelve German submarines are in Northwest Africa. Captains of British cargo boats have reported sighting a mysterious vessel in Liberian waters near Baffu Bay. So deeply concerned is the British Government over the advices that German nationals in Liberia are in secret communication with German vessels that the British Chargé d’Affaires at Monrovia secured permission of the Firestone Plantations manager for an English employee, a former British army officer, to make an overland trip to Baffu Bay in the guise of a labor recruiter for the plantations with a view to ascertaining the movements of Germans in that section.
The French Chargé d’Affaires has informed the Liberian Government of his government’s suspicions that Germans are secretly operating a radio station in Liberia. Radio operators on French Aeromaritime planes, arriving at Monrovia outward bound on Tuesday and homeward bound on Sunday complain of radio interference. The Liberian Government Radio Station and the Firestone Radio Station at Duside, by agreement with the French Aeromaritime Company, do not operate when the French planes are arriving at and departing from Monrovia. The Liberian Government is conducting investigations. The existence of a German radio station located in the Seventh Day Adventist Mission in the Kakata area, the head of which is a German, is suspected.
[Page 569]The British and French representatives have on several occasions recently confided to me that Liberia’s pregnability to attack from without and within is a source of grave concern to their governments. Liberia is regarded as the weak link in the West African Coast chain. Night and day the British and French are feverishly engaged in strengthening their colonies from attack.
At this writing indications point to Great Britain and France forming a secret alliance with Liberia, with the knowledge of the United States Government, whereby the African republic will receive naval and aerial assistance in time of war. I have been informally requested by the French representative to emphasize to Liberian authorities that in giving Liberia external protection the two colonial powers expect Liberia to bend every effort possible to organize and prepare to defend itself successfully should nationals of a foreign nation precipitate internal disorders.
Respectfully yours,
- Informal permission given to the Minister in Liberia to loan, as a temporary measure, certain Legation arms and ammunition to Captain Nabors, Military Adviser to the Liberian Government, to assist him in his efforts to give the Liberian militia modern training.↩