882.01 Foreign Control/187

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Boal)

Mr. Osborne, of the British Embassy, called and presented the attached note regarding Liberia.4 I told him that Mr. Reber would be present at the meeting of the Committee and he said that that answered the question and not to bother to write an answer.

Mr. Osborne said that he wanted to tell me orally and informally that he understood from London that the British members of the Committee (I suppose he meant Cecil) felt that the Liberian matter was one which primarily concerned the United States rather than the League; that the American member of the Committee was really the one who should be the most interested in the matter and that they rather felt that it was up to the United States to deal with the situation rather than the League. Mr. Osborne confessed ignorance of the Liberian matter and said it was a matter with which he did not wish to become acquainted.

I said that among the many things that could be said in reply to his information on the feeling in London, I would say only one at this time, namely that Liberia was a member of the League of Nations and it certainly seems up to the other members, in accordance with their general theory of international relationship, to extend a friendly and memberly hand to Liberia. I said that the situation in Liberia was exceedingly bad and that I felt that nothing short of competent white assistance equipped with adequate authority in Liberia for some time to come would straighten it out; that it really seemed that it was up to the League to help Liberia to achieve progress in that direction.

Mr. Osborne said he quite understood that the United States was not prepared to extend the Monroe Doctrine to Africa, to which I replied that he was quite right. He said he was just talking informally and did not intend to report to his Government on anything but the answer made to his note, namely that Mr. Reber would be present.

Pierre de L. Boal
  1. Not printed.