Liberia: Description, History, ProblemsStarr, Frederick
History
Liberia: Description, History, Problems
Starr, Frederick
Liberia
Nor did the acquisition of the territory put an end to the
difficulties in that region. In the year 1860 John Myers Harris, an
English trader, had established himself in the country between the Mano
and Sulima Rivers and refused to acknowledge Liberia’s authority; as he
was conducting a flagrant trade in contravention of Liberian laws of
commerce, President Benson sent a coast guard to seize two schooners,
the _Phoebe_ and _Emily_, which had been consigned to him; the seizure
was made between Cape Mount and Mano Point, clearly Liberian territory.
It is curious that this seizure was made by a Liberian government
vessel, the _Quail_, which had been a gift to the Republic from Great
Britain. We have, then, a vessel, contributed through British sympathy,
operating within an area secured through British philanthropy, against
law-breaking indulged in by British subjects. The captured schooners
were taken to Liberia and were held for legal adjudication; under the
orders of the Sierra Leone Government, the British gunboat, _Torch_,
appeared at Monrovia, and seized the two schooners by force on December
17; at the same time the commander of this gunboat demanded from the
Liberian Government a penalty of fifteen pounds per day for nineteen
days’ detention. Shortly after these events, President Benson, on his
way to England for public business, visited the government of Sierra
Leone and tried to adjust the difficulties which had arisen; he was,
however, referred to London. At about this time part of the disputed
territory was annexed by Sierra Leone to her own area. While in London,
Benson took up the matter with the British Government. Lord Russell
acknowledged the territorial rights of Liberia to extend from the coast
east of Turner Point (Mattru) to the San Pedro River on the east, thus
admitting the point for which Liberia contended. This decision was by no
means satisfactory to the troublers in Africa. Harris agitated the
matter in dispute. Backed by Governor Hall of Sierra Leone, he and
neighboring traders protested against the concession Russell had made. A
commission was therefore appointed and met at Monrovia April 25, 1863,
continuing in session until May 4, when it adjourned without decision.
The British Commissioners examined the title deeds held by Liberia and
were inclined to recognize some of these and to refuse others; they
objected to Liberia’s possessing any territory beyond the Mano River,
and proposed that river as the boundary. The Liberian Commissioners
demurred, urging the validity of the deeds they showed and proposing
that the Sherbro should be their northwest boundary; they asserted a
good title to the territories known as Cassee, Gumbo, and Muttru. The
British Commissioners based their claims upon letters from the chiefs of
the territories involved and on statements which they asserted had been
made by them. The Commission broke up without a settlement, as the
Liberians held strictly to the concession which Lord Russell had
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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