882.51/1201
The British Ambassador (Geddes) to the Acting Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Assistant Secretary: Mr. Sperling31 has informed me of the substance of his conversation with you on the 28th ultimo in so far as it touched on Liberia.
While I do not wish to raise the matter officially, I regard it as absolutely necessary that some explanation should be furnished of the failure to pay the coupons of the Liberian Gold Loan of 1913 [1912?] in spite of the fact that according to our information sufficient funds for this purpose exist. In support of this latter statement I may mention that I understand that the sum of $87,000 was remitted to the Fiscal Agent of the Loan between November, 1918 and November 1919, the amount required to pay a year’s interest on the outstanding bonds being $72,900, while according to a recent report the sum of £20,000 has been remitted this year.
This latter amount is I believe sufficient to meet the coupons due in July, 1919 and January, 1920. Failure to meet these coupons is attracting attention in the British press and it is for this, among other reasons, that I am anxious that something should be done if not to satisfy the bondholders, at least to enable my Government to explain to them the reasons for which it is not practicable to meet the obligations of the Loan in full.
Believe me [etc.]
- R. A. C. Sperling, of the British Foreign Office, in the United States as member of the British delegation to the Preliminary Conference on the International Conference on Electrical Communications, held at Washington in 1920.↩