882.24/60
Mr. Harry A. McBride, Special Representative of President Roosevelt in Liberia, to the President of Liberia (Barclay)23
Excellency: Referring to Article 5 of the Agreement between the Governments of Liberia and the United States, covering the use of [Page 376] airports and defense areas in Liberia, and signed on this date, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency, in confidence, that the specific defense aids which the Government of the United States undertakes to extend to the Government of Liberia are as follows:
- 1.
- The road building machinery and equipment which has been used in the construction of the airport at Roberts Field and access roads as soon as this work has been completed;
- 2.
- Adequate protection by American forces of the airports and such other defense areas as may be established under the Agreement;
- 3.
- Assistance through the United States War Department in organizing and training a Liberian military force of two to three thousand men by supplying, at American expense, qualified personnel for such purposes;
- 4.
- The extension of a credit in the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars from Lend-Lease or other United States funds for the purpose of assisting in the road construction and defense program of Liberia;
- 5.
- A supply of small arms and ammunition for a force of two to three thousand men to be made available to the Liberian Government by the United States as a part of supplies to be furnished under the credit above mentioned;
- 6.
- The construction by the United States of access roads to areas required by the American defense forces in Liberia.
In the construction of these access roads the United States will spend two hundred thousand dollars, which is in addition to the eight hundred thousand dollars mentioned in item 4. The most important of these roads will connect Roberts Field with Fisherman Lake. The total constitutes what we may call the Million Dollar Program of Assistance to Liberia.
In this connection it is further understood that the military use of the airports at Roberts Field and Fisherman Lake during the life of the Agreement, shall in no way prejudice the rights already granted to Pan American Airways in the concession and lease extended to that company, for the operation of the commercial air services.
Accept [etc.]
A letter, of which this is a true copy, was handed to President Barclay today, March 31, 1942, by me in the presence of Clifton R. Wharton, Esquire, American Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in Liberia (Hibbard) in his despatch No. 23, February 2, 1943; received February 23.↩