Office of the Historian

882.01 Foreign Control/633: Telegram

The Chargé in Liberia (Werlich) to the Secretary of State

Monrovia, September 1, 1933—3 p.m.
[Received September 2—9:10 a.m.]

74. From General Winship. My No. 72, August 25, 2 p.m.59 An acknowledgment of the joint statement delivered by Routh and me has been received. It makes no reference to the question of amnesty but states that the local study of the plan of assistance will be completed in time for “whatever conclusions reached to be laid before the ensuing session of the Council”.

Barclay has declined to summon the Legislature before the regular session beginning October 8. He had apparently intended to return the plan to Geneva, requesting the Council to accept certain Liberian modifications on the basis of which he would then, if satisfied, endorse it to the Liberian Legislature. Mackenzie told him that in this case the Council would either merely refer the matter to the International Committee, which had already taken action, or that the League might flatly [Page 930] refuse to go on with the matter at this evidence of further Liberian procrastination. I saw Barclay separately and spoke very plainly to him, pointing out that the purpose of the plan was to assist Liberia to remedy a number of conditions whose existence the world would no longer tolerate. I referred to the disintegration of administration here and the general dissatisfaction of the people. I denied the validity of his complaint that acceptance of the plan would mean the “abdication of the government” or place its officials in an “embarrassing and humiliating position”, but I told him that in the event of Liberian refusal of this plan, I thought he would be faced with a far more serious situation in which specific demands might be made by the foreign countries most affected by present Liberian conditions. At length Barclay agreed to an immediate study here of the plan, the amended loan contract and supporting documents, none of the details of which appears to be properly understood…

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  • [Winship]
  • Werlich
  1. Not printed.↩