1,04 MONACO 



full and complete authority to collect customs and other assigned revenues as he might deem 

 necessary for this purpose, and should be supported by an adequate customs guard and 

 patrol service on land and sea by the Republic of Liberia. And if the Republic should fail 

 to provide an efficient customs guard and patrol service, the general receiver might establish 

 such himself and pay the expenses thereof out of the assigned revenues. For the further 

 security of the revenue during the maintenance of internal peace there was to be maintained 

 during the life of the loan an adequate frontier police force, the officers of which were to be 

 designated by the President of the United States of America. The general receiver of cus- 

 toms (an American) 1 would also exercise the functions of a financial adviser to the Republic, 

 and co-operate with the secretary of the Treasury to bring order and system into the 

 finances, and further exercise a reasonable control over the expenditure in each fiscal year, 

 and a proper accounting for all the moneys received and disbursed 



The conclusion of the loan was made contingent on the settlement of the outstand- 

 ing claims of the creditors of the Liberian Government. Many of these were Germans, 

 and some delay was caused by the discrepancy between the German claims and the 

 views of the Liberian Government; but on June 25, 1912 an agreement was finally 

 reached on a basis described by both sides as " very satisfactory." The negro Re- 

 public of Liberia has thus come within somewhat the same financial administrative 

 control on the part of the United States as has so greatly benefited the Republic of 

 Santo Domingo in the West Indies. 



The intervention of the United States has checked the ambition of France to eat 

 away by degrees the hinterland of Liberia. The Liberians would add that it has equally 

 checked the desire of the Sierra Leone Government to absorb Liberia from the west. 

 It is doubtful whether such a desire has ever existed, though it is certain that both the 

 British colonial government of Sierra Leone and the local government of French Guinea 

 were becoming increasingly exasperated by the continual disorder prevailing in the 

 Liberian hinterland and the effects that such disorder had on the populations and on 

 the trade of the adjoining territories. It can only be to the advantage of both British 

 Sierra Leone and French Guinea and their respective railway systems that the Republic 

 of Liberia should become a stable, prosperous, and homogeneous state, a great rubber- 

 producing country, and one which by its peculiar vegetable and mineral products 

 rather takes a place of its own in the West African system than becomes a rival to the 

 industries of British and French West Africa. 



Statistics. The approximate revenue of Liberia for 1909 was 378,300 dollars (about 

 76,000). The returns for 1910 are not yet published but are said to show a slight increase. 

 The revenue for 1905 (the year before British customs collectors were appointed) was about 

 53,200. The total annual trade in the last year for which complete statistics are issued 

 (1909) was worth (imports and exports nearly equal) 407,200. The chief exports are still 

 rubber, palm oil and palm kernels, piassava fibre, coffee, ivory, ginger and camwood. 



Bibliography. "A Journey through the Liberian Hinterland," by Captain C. Braith- 

 waite Wallis, Geographical Journal, 1910; Op Expeditie met de Franschen . . . aan de 

 Fransch-Liberiaansche Grensregelings-expeditie in de jam 1908 in 1909, by Captain Naber 

 and Lieut. Moret, The Hague, 1910 (an exceedingly interesting and well written work in 

 Dutch on inner Liberia and on the recent political troubles). (H. H. JOHNSTON.) 



MONACO 2 



On January 5, 1911 a Constitution was granted by Prince Albert I of Monaco to his 

 subjects. It was based upon a report made by three French juris-consults, Jules 

 Roche, Louis Renault and Andre Weiss. The government of the principality is carried 

 on under the authority of the Prince by a minister of state assisted by a council of govern- 

 ment consisting of the minister and three councillors nominated by the Prince. These 

 three councillors perform the duties of ministers of the Interior, Finance and Public 

 Works. A council of state is established, which includes the minister, a secretary of 

 state, the three councillors, the first president of the Court of Appeal, and the procureur- 

 general. The legislative power is exercised by the Prince and a national council. This 

 council is composed of twenty-one members elected for four years by universal direct 

 suffrage with a scrutin de liste, and is presided over by a president and a vice-president 



1 Mr. Reed P. Clark, of New Hampshire, was appointed. 



2 See E. B. xviii, 684. 



