740.00112 European War 1939/2889
Memorandum of Telephone Conversations, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Villard)
Mr. Firestone telephoned from Akron to say that the following radiogram had been received from his resident manager in Liberia:
“British Consul supplied us with copy of telegram from British Embassy in Washington which listed all our applications.”
Mr. Firestone said that he took this to mean that in spite of the denial by Mr. Helm, the British Embassy had in fact cabled the list of Firestone navicert applications to Monrovia for approval by the Chargé d’Affaires.
[Page 526]I subsequently telephoned to Mr. Helm at the British Embassy and read him the text of the radiogram quoted above. Mr. Helm explained that this report was probably due to the fact that all navicert applications, from whatever source, were always transmitted as a matter of course by London to the British representative in the country of destination for his information. Mr. Helm said that this had probably occurred in the case of the Firestone Plantations’ navicert applications, but there was no intention whatever to submit them for the approval or consent of the British Legation in Monrovia. If the Chargé d’Affaires had utilized this list of applications in order to induce the manager of the Bank of Monrovia to give him written assurances on one point or another, he was not authorized to do so.
Mr. Helm reiterated his statement of the previous day to the effect that the British Chargé d’Affaires had been instructed to discontinue his attempts to obtain undertakings of any kind from the Firestone subsidiaries in Liberia. Mr. Helm was confident that in view of these instructions no further difficulties need be anticipated.