702.6282/46
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador71 asked urgently to see me this morning.
Lord Halifax brought with him a message from Mr. Eden saying that the British Government had just learned that, at the instance of the Government of the United States, the Liberian Government had agreed to the deportation of the German Consul General in Liberia and that the latter was to be removed by airplane from Liberia on October 25. The British Government felt strongly that it would be preferable to have the German Consul General placed under control in some form of concentration confinement in Liberia rather than to have him removed to French West Africa, which the British Government stated had been kept relatively free of German agents by Governor General Boisson. Furthermore, the British Government believed that the German Consul General undoubtedly would have full information as to military activities of the United States in Liberia, which would immediately be passed on to the German Government if the Consul General were allowed to go to French West Africa.
I told the Ambassador I would look into the matter and let him have a reply in the course of the day.
- Viscount Halifax.↩