36 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
The flag of the Republic of Liberia, also patterned after our own (red, white, 
and blue), consists of six red and five white alternating stripes, indicating the 
eleven signatories of the Declaration of Independence, and of a single white 
star on a blue field in the corner near the spearhead of the staff. The national 
shield bears at its foot the national motto, ‘“‘The love of liberty brought us here.” 
Great Britain almost immediately (1848) recognized the independence of 
Liberia; France, Prussia, and a number of other European countries did so 
shortly afterwards. The United States, however, did not officially recognize 
» Liberia until 1862, when the great issue of slavery was being fiercely contested. 
At the present time Liberia is represented in this country by a Consul General 
at Baltimore, a negro who was formerly Minister of the United States to Liberia. 
There is also a white Consul for Liberia in New York. 
The Constitution drawn up in 1847 remains with few amendments the law 
of the country today. There is a President who is Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and Navy, and the Constitution also provides that he shall have other 
powers somewhat similar to those held by the President of the United States. 
At present, however, there is no Liberian navy, though several years ago there 
was one armed steam yacht. The army consists of about six hundred men 
known as the Liberian frontier force. As organized on paper, it is divided into 
two battalions with two labor companies of twenty-five men each. Enlistment 
is for a period of five years, and pay is at the rate of about one English pound a 
month. Both officers and men, however, complain bitterly of the arrears in 
their pay, and have done so for some years.! They sometimes use this fact as 
an excuse for their depredations against the native tribes. 
In 1912, the American military attaché at Monrovia reported that the mem- 
bers of the Liberian frontier force were neither fed nor paid, and that for the last 
three years their pay had been ‘“‘jobbed”’ by Liberian officials. He also reported 
that in the past the officers in the force also acted as native commissioners, and 
as such had “stolen from the natives their women and children, killed their 
men, purloined their food, ivory and other possessions and in general had brought 
about all the dissension and wars waged on the frontier, together with the defec- 
tion of the natives.” ” 
There is also a Liberian militia in which about three thousand men are en- 
rolled. A company drill is scheduled to be held once a month, but is frequently 
dispensed with. The regulations also require four regimental parades a year. 
The men are not equipped with serviceable arms and neither officers nor men 
are paid. 
The Constitution of Liberia also provides for a Vice-President who presides 
over the Senate, and for a cabinet in which, like our own, there are seven secreta- 
ries— State, Treasury, Justice, War, Interior, Public Instruction, and Postmaster- 
General. The Legislature consists of ten senators (two from each county) and 
twenty-one representatives. ‘The judiciary consists of a supreme court of three 
judges and of four provisional courts. In addition, each county has a monthly 
1 Report of the Secretary of the Interior (1923), p. 2. 
? Foreign Relations of the United States (1912), p. 685. 
