Frontier Questions 



were only a stipulated number of places at which goods could 

 be landed or embarked under Customs supervision. 



The Liberian Customs duties at that time were low — 

 a uniform 6 per cent, ad valorem — but the foreign merchants, 

 chiefly British, delighted in defrauding the weak little Negro 

 Government by landing or shipping goods at other spots on the 

 Liberian coast outside the ports of entry. To a certain extent 

 this practice still goes on. A 

 steamer in attempting to traffic 

 on the " wild " coast away from 

 a port of entry occasionally runs 

 on the rocks and becomes a 

 total wreck. The ungrateful 

 aborigines (having perchance 

 some score to pay off against 

 the captain of the vessel) dart 

 out in their canoes, plunder 

 the ship of all they can lay 

 hands on, the passengers and 

 crew have to walk miles (quite 

 unmolested) to the nearest 

 Americo-Liberian settlement, and 

 the . Liberian Government is 

 called upon subsequently to pay 



an indemnity and engage in an expensive war with the erring 

 natives. 



All things considered, perhaps the Ports of Entry Law was 

 a wise measure. Its scope will no doubt be widened as the 

 expanding revenue of Liberia permits of more Customs stations 

 being opened along the coast and on the British and French 

 frontiers. The Liberian Government has expressed the intention 

 of creating numerous trading stations in the interior as soon 



249 



a 



66. PRESIDENT BARCLAY IN 1896 



