811.79682/30
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Villard)
Colonel Taylor19 said that while it was correct at the present time to say that Liberia would not be used for the ferrying of aircraft to the Middle East, the situation was likely to change at any moment. He said that the War Department had, in fact, every intention to use the airport at Monrovia as an emergency landing field or as an alternative to the Atlantic terminal points at Bathurst and Freetown as soon as the construction in Liberia was sufficiently far advanced to permit takeoffs and landings.
Colonel Taylor also said that it would be necessary to install a garrison in Liberia to defend the landing field when completed. He said we could not afford to let the Germans take the field with parachute troops or by other means. It would be necessary to bring in aircraft guns and similar equipment for defense.
I explained to Colonel Taylor the very great interest which this Department had in the political situation in Liberia, particularly in regard to the relations between the Liberian Government and the Firestone Company. Colonel Taylor said that the War Department would approach the State Department in order to obtain the permission of the Liberian Government for the use of its territory in ferrying military aircraft, and that the War Department realized the political implications of this. He said that it was up to the State Department whether to take President Barclay into its confidence at this stage of developments, or to await a formal request by the War Department.
- Col. J. G. Taylor, Army Air Force Intelligence, War Department.↩