882.51/1522: Telegram

The Minister in Liberia (Hood) to the Secretary of State

25. Referring to the Department’s cablegram July 13. A crisis had come, there was no longer sufficient time to get instructions and this Legation had either to endorse or not to endorse a proposition which, if refused, did mean serious complications and grave consequences to Liberian Government. The Legation had previously through every possible method it could employ tried to call the attention of the Department to the Government’s crisis. The Legation felt that notwithstanding faulty administration of Government finances it must be kept going.

Acting Financial Adviser states that as auditor he had foreseen and reported the failure of credit as early as April 6th,17 [that] Department’s request for financial statistics could not be complied with because of conditions of record, that he considered Department’s policy to keep Liberian Government status quo, that unequivocally they deny pay roll at end, that under the circumstances [he was] convinced that decisive immediate action was necessary to save situation, [and that] this bank agreement creates no new obligation and ceases on consummation of the loan.

Hood
  1. Letter to the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs; not printed.