882.001 Barclay, Edwin/84
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Villard)
At a dinner given in his honor at Blair House on Saturday, May 29, President Edwin Barclay of Liberia talked to me very freely and frankly concerning a number of matters affecting his country. As Mr. Tubman, the President-elect, was also present, it may be assumed that the views expressed were his as well.
President Barclay said bluntly at the outset that while he appreciated the courteous treatment given to him since his arrival in the United States, he was keenly disappointed at the lack of opportunity to discuss the problems of Liberia with responsible officials of the American Government. He observed that he was a very busy man; that he would not have left Liberia if he had known that his visit to Washington was to be devoted to social functions or that he was scheduled to leave without a chance to take up in the proper quarters various matters which he considered vital to the future of Liberia.
1. Proposed harbor development
The subject uppermost in President Barclay’s mind was the question of a port in Liberia. He said that he had received the distinct impression from President Roosevelt, when the latter had visited his country, that some form of harbor development or naval base was contemplated by the United States in Liberia, as a means of implementing the President’s declaration that Dakar would never again become a threat to the Western hemisphere. It was for this reason [Page 660] that President Barclay had accepted the invitation to come to Washington, believing that the main purpose of the trip would be to discuss this all-important matter. The conversations which he had had on this subject, up to the eve of his departure from Washington, had been entirely inconclusive.
President Barclay said that following the dinner given to him at the White House, he had conferred with President Roosevelt for an hour the following morning, in the course of which President Roosevelt had definitely stated he desired to see a port developed in Liberia. President Barclay had given his assent to the proposal. Mr. Harry Hopkins was supposed to be present at this conversation, as well as at breakfast that morning, in order to follow up the matter, but he had not appeared on either occasion. President Barclay had waited in vain for him all morning, and now that he understood the White House staff had gone to Hyde Park, he was at a loss how to proceed. He asked whether it would be correct for him to draw up a memorandum to send to the White House.4 I said I thought this would be entirely in order, and requested that a copy be sent simultaneously to the State Department.
In discussing the best site for a harbor, President Barclay said that it should preferably be located to the north of Monrovia, as, for example, at the St. Paul’s River. This would tap the rich northern section of the country, which showed the greatest promise in respect to natural resources. Other parts of Liberia were unknown and unexplored and could not justify a port enterprise. The best natural location was actually at Baffu Bay, which could be made to serve as an outlet for produce from French West African territory, but the remoteness of this section made it impracticable and of little advantage except to the French.
The President made it clear that he would not entertain any port project which would benefit primarily the Firestone Plantations, such as at Marshall.
2. Attitude toward American interests
President Barclay said that while he appreciated all that Firestone had done for his country, he regarded Firestone as an American interest which had to be curbed. He said that the Firestone organization considered itself to be of paramount importance in Liberia and as if the country should be run for its benefit alone. He was obviously suspicious of any extension of Firestone’s influence, including the sponsoring by Firestone of new American enterprises or a port development connected with the rubber plantations.
The President made it clear that he would welcome other United States interests in Liberia, provided they had no tie-up with Firestone. [Page 661] He said that he would examine with the most sympathetic attention any proposal made which would be of benefit to Liberia. He said that the United States Steel Corporation survey had been a complete failure; that he was greatly disappointed at the cursory examination made by the engineers; and that he suspected the only reason why the corporation had gone to Liberia was because it had been urged to do so and had the backing of the State Department. I explained that we had taken pains to present to other American companies the opportunity to explore Liberia’s iron ore resources, but that only the Bethlehem Steel Company was interested. The President expressed the hope that the Bethlehem people would investigate the prospects as soon as possible after the war.
3. American military forces
The President was critical of the American military authorities in Liberia. He cited an instance in which American military police had seized a Liberian customs employee, at the alleged instigation of Firestone, with a view to administering justice. The President said that the commanding general should remember that the American military forces did not constitute an army of occupation, as General Sadler5 seemed to think. The President said that Liberia would do everything within reason to help win the war but that the country must be allowed to exercise its own authority and administer its own justice when it had the means to do so.
President Barclay indicated he would be glad to have the American garrison depart at as early a date as possible after the war, and assistance given meanwhile to building up the Liberian Frontier Force to a permanent strength of about 3,500 men with modern machine guns.
4. Relations with other countries
Turning to the question of Liberia’s frontiers, the President said that French encroachments were the most serious. He said that the various acts of the French Government in the past had demonstrated a definitely hostile intention and had seriously threatened Liberia. The President said that if the Liberian Frontier Force had been strong enough, it would have attempted to regain by force the territory which France had taken away from Liberia on the northern border under a treaty imposed in 1911.6 One of Liberia’s principal objectives at the end of the present war would be to obtain restitution of this so-called lost territory from France.
[Page 662]President Barclay said there was a greater fear of France in Liberia than of Great Britain. The President showed no particular dislike for the British. In fact, he said that his relations with Great Britain depended only on the type of representative sent to Monrovia; that if a proper selection were made there would be nothing to prevent a satisfactory and amicable relationship. He said there was no desire to obtain any boundary rectification from Great Britain.
The President said he had positive evidence of the designs of both Germany and Italy on Liberia through the instrumentality of the Neep concession,7 which he had canceled, but I received the impression that he expected a resumption of trade with Germany after the war.
5. Educational problems
I mentioned the educational problem in Liberia. The President severely criticized Mr. Embree, the former American Educational Adviser, now attached in a nominal capacity to the Booker Washington Agricultural Institute. The President said that his Government had desired to put into effect a system of tribal education along the lines of a study made by the Mexican Government, but that Embree had refused. The President asserted that Embree was doing no good in Liberia at present; that it was a waste of money to keep him there; …
The President also attacked Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones of the Phelps Stokes Fund. He asserted that the educational ideas of Dr. Jones were modeled on old-time British Colonial methods and could serve no useful purpose in Liberia. The President felt that Liberian students should not come to the United States, because they returned with ideas and standards of living which could not be put into practice in Liberia. He believed rather that technical schools adapted to the needs of the country should be established, staffed with trained teachers from abroad. I said that the matter of raising the educational standards of Liberia had occasioned more interest among Americans than almost anything else affecting that country. The President said that he would give me a separate memorandum on the subject of educational reform.
6. Lend-Lease situation
President Barclay was particularly disappointed at the lend-lease situation, and the one-million-dollar credit which had been included in the negotiations for airport rights. He said that he had found the United States Army engineers were building roads which suited them, without reference to the needs of the country and of no practical help to Liberia after the war. The President said that he did not understand [Page 663] our intentions in offering lend-lease and then arbitrarily deciding how and where the roads were to be built. He desired to open up the interior of the country and did not see how this was to be done under the present apportionment and use of funds by the Army. I said that the formal lend-lease agreement with Liberia should be ready for signature very shortly, and that under the terms thereof I felt it would be possible for Liberia to obtain assistance in the projects which were of importance to it.
It is possible that the President did not fully understand the distinction between the so-called million dollar credit and the master Lend-Lease agreement yet to be signed.
In offering a toast at the end of the dinner, President Barclay made some exceedingly friendly references to his relations with the State Department. He said he was confident that the Department would do everything to assist Liberia and to make his visit worthwhile.
It may also be worth noting that at a luncheon earlier in the day President Barclay expressed surprise at the lack of racial discrimination in the United States. He said that through his reading he had been lead to believe the situation was much more serious, whereas during his visit so far he had found nothing but evidence of cooperation between the two races.
- See memorandum by President Barclay, p. 679.↩
- Commanding General of United States Army Forces in Liberia; he succeeded Colonel Kirchhoff.↩
- Agreement regarding delimitation of frontier, signed at Paris, January 13, 1911, British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cvii, p. 797.↩
- For correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. ii, pp. 770 ff.↩