Liberia: Description, History, ProblemsStarr, Frederick
History
Liberia: Description, History, Problems
Starr, Frederick
Liberia
In 1908 attempts had been made in Europe to settle difficulties pending
with Great Britain and France. Mr. F. E. R. Johnson, the Liberian
Secretary of State, who had been sent to arrange these matters, found
conditions threatening. In London the British Government stated that it
had no designs against Liberia, but that they believed the French were
planning encroachment, and that, if Liberia lost territory to France,
Great Britain would find it necessary to take a new piece of territory
contingent to Sierra Leone in her own defense. Matters appeared so
serious that President Barclay was advised to come to Europe himself; he
arrived in London on the 29th of August, accompanied by T. McCants
Stewart, and there met Mr. Johnson. He told the British Government of
his fears regarding further aggression upon Liberian territory and
expressed the desire that Great Britain and America should jointly
guarantee the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic.
The reply was that Great Britain would on no account enter into any such
guarantee; if the Liberian Government obtained a settled frontier with
France, and inaugurated certain reforms, there would be little danger of
any one’s troubling it; if the reforms desired by England were not
undertaken, nothing would save it from the end which threatened. At the
same time London refused to treat of the Kanre-Lahun and Mano River
difficulties until after the troubles with France had been arranged. In
France, as will be shortly seen, the Liberian envoys met with no
success; a treaty was indeed arranged by means of which the Republic was
robbed of a large amount of valuable territory. The envoys were again in
London in September to take up the matters of the Kanre-Lahun and Mano
River negotiations. The British officials now demanded that Fabundah
should come entirely under the jurisdiction of the British Government,
and that the frontier line on the northwest should be so altered as to
place his territory within the British colony; the area thus demanded
contained something like 250 square miles of territory. At no time had
the area actually in charge of Fabundah amounted to any such quantity;
the Liberians demurred at the largeness of the territorial claim--the
British officials themselves stated that they were surprised at its
extent, but insisted upon receiving the entire amount. No decision was
actually reached, the matter being postponed until the delimitation of
the new Franco-Liberian boundary should be achieved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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