File No. 763.72/5957
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Liberia ( Curtis)
Your July 23, 9 p.m., and your July 24, 1 p.m. Department is not inclined to favor the Liberian Government’s entry into any convention with British and French Governments by which they guarantee [Page 477] Liberia against molestation after war, as indicated by Article 4, and it would not authorize you to participate in any way in such a convention. Less objection would be seen to an agreement limited in effect to duration of present war, but this would seem to be unnecessary in view of assurance given in the British memorandum of July 14, mentioned in Department’s July 18, 6 p.m., that British naval forces at Sierra Leone will furnish all necessary protection to Liberia so long as present war lasts. This assurance together with the assurance that Great Britain will cancel trade restrictions and the interest which Liberia knows the United States takes in her welfare should satisfy Liberian Government; but if that Government enters into an agreement with France and Great Britain limited to duration of present war, such agreement should make it clearly understood that any naval or military base established thereunder, within the jurisdiction of Liberia, will be promptly discontinued upon termination of present war.