882.20/473: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Bullitt)
509. Your 1233, June 30, 9 p.m. Our military and naval experts are of the opinion that landing of hostile forces in Liberia could be prevented only by appropriate measures of defense of Liberia’s coastline by French or British naval or aerial units. Those experts believe, furthermore, that the presence of foreign troops or foreign trained troops in Liberia might even constitute an objective for attack by hostile forces and that they would in any case be unable to resist bombardment by hostile naval vessels. The proposed increase in the Liberian Frontier Force would not be undertaken with a view to preventing acts of aggression from without but to preserve internal order and to reduce the possibility of a coup by unfriendly aliens who might be residing in the country.
Our military and naval authorities consider that any attempt to seize Liberia through naval or aerial action would automatically have to be met by France and Great Britain which have their own vital interests to protect in that part of Africa. The nature of the measures to be put into effect upon the outbreak of hostilities in order to assimilate the Liberian coastline, for defensive purposes, to the adjoining French and British possessions, are of course for the determination of the French and British Governments in the light of any arrangements they may have for the protection of those possessions. Apparently what the Liberian Government desires at this time is some assurance, either formal or informal, from the British and French Governments that they intend, in the event of hostilities, to take such action as may be required to protect, in their own self interest, the coastline of Liberia.