882.01 Foreign Control/396: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
150. For Reber. Your 281, October 2 [3], 3 p.m. [2 p.m.]76 and 288, October 7, 1 p.m. The revised text was sent to the Finance Corporation on October 5, under cover of a letter77 containing the following paragraph:
“In the opinion of the Department these general principles are susceptible of use as a basis for the further development of the Liberian problem through direct negotiations between the Finance Corporation and Liberia. In making the text available to you the Department accordingly endorses in this sense the general principles contained therein”
The company was also informed of the urgent desire of the Committee to learn whether or when a Finance Corporation representative would be available for direct negotiations, and we offered to transmit through you the company’s reply.
You may inform the Committee and/or the Secretariat, dating your letter October 8 but arranging that it arrive only on Monday morning, October 10.
Is the text being held confidential? The Department is in receipt of numerous requests for copies, information as to progress, etc., from philanthropic and racial groups. On the whole, we should prefer to have the initial publicity from Geneva, not earlier than [Page 769] Monday, following which we would expect to release the text here, together with our transmitting letter to the Finance Corporation.
We can see no justification for resentment by the Committee or the Council over the delay in commencing the financial negotiations. The text was only transmitted by us to the Firestones on October 5, the earliest date on which we were satisfied that the delegation of authority was adequate and that the acceptance of the plan by the Liberian representative constituted a binding obligation.
You may, in your discretion and if necessary, point out the foregoing to the Committee.