882.01 Winship Mission/48: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Special Commissioner for Liberia (Winship)

23. Your 35, April 8, 10 p.m., received this morning. We have been in touch with the Firestones at Akron and have urged upon them the advisability of modifying their position to the extent of authorizing Lyle to discuss modification of the Loan Agreement if and when you have obtained from Barclay a promise to take no further action to aggravate the situation pending such discussions.

Harvey Firestone, Jr., has just telephoned that they are sending a telegram to Lyle this evening authorizing the initiation of such discussions. Lyle, however, is to assure himself first that you plan to remain in Monrovia until the success or failure of the negotiations is definite. They seem apprehensive that you may decide to leave Monrovia as soon as they have begun the discussions of the modification of the Loan Contract and before Barclay has committed himself as to the withdrawal of the confiscatory legislation and thus leave Lyle in an untenable position. The Department replied that it had from the first given you complete discretion in meeting the situation but that there was nothing apparent in your telegrams to justify the impression that you were planning to leave during the course of negotiations.

Hull