882.01 Foreign Control/441: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Liberia (Mitchell)
78. Your telegrams 112 and 113.1 I have no objection to your explaining orally to your British, German and French colleagues (or any of them) the attitude of this Government regarding attempts by Liberia to repudiate or modify the Loan Agreement by unilateral action. We feel that it would be better for them to receive an accurate and authoritative statement from you than to obtain the information, possibly distorted, from other sources.
You are therefore authorized in your discretion to make oral statements to your colleagues that “under instructions from your Government you called on Barclay on December 21 to make representations against unilateral action by Liberia concerning its contractual obligations”. You may then read (but should not leave copies of) the last two paragraphs of the Department’s telegram 76, December 19, 6 p.m. You should make clear that your Government’s opposition is to any unilateral action.
- Neither printed.↩