208 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Dr. Cuthbert Christy has been selected as the representative of the League of 
Nations. The Liberian member will, of course, also be a negro. 
In his Annual Message to Congress, 1929, President King of Liberia says 1n 
part: 
“In the month of June, the American Minister at this Capital, acting upon instructions of 
his Government, called at the Department of State and handed to the Secretary a note dated 
June 8, 1929, couched in no uncertain terms but yet friendly in tone, advising the Liberian Govern- 
ment that there have come to the attention of the Government of the United States, from several 
sources, reports bearing reliable evidence of authenticity which definitely indicate that existing 
conditions incident to the so-called ‘export’ of labor from Liberia to Fernando Po had resulted 
in the development of a system which seems hardly distinguishable from organized Slave Trade. 
It was further asserted that the reports which had reached the American Government of State 
indicated that these conditions of forced labor were general throughout the Republic, particu- 
larly in the interior, where forced labor procured with the assistance of the Liberian Frontier Force 
and high Government officials has become a common and usual practice.” 
After discussing the labor agreement between Spain and the Liberian Govern- 
ment, with reference to the sending of laborers to Fernando Po, he adds: 
“Tt is not easily apparent as to what is intended to be implied in the further statement (in 
the American Note) to the effect that conditions of forced labor are not confined to labor exported 
to Fernando Po but are general throughout the Republic of Liberia. As this allegation perhaps is 
made in connection with the policy pursued by the Liberian Government in the construction of its 
public roads, it would seem permissible to point out that the use of compulsory labor for public 
purposes is an act not peculiar to the present Liberian Administration. It has the sanction of 
the laws of the Republic and is not repugnant to the provisions of the Slavery Convention of 1926 
as found in Art. 8, sub-section 1 of that Convention, which reads as follows: ‘It is agreed that 
subject to the transitional provisions laid down in Paragraph 2 below, compulsory or forced labor 
») 23) 
may only be exacted for public purposes’. 
As an evidence of recent further interest of the United States in aiding 
Liberia, our Government has delegated Dr. Howard Smith of the United States 
Public Health Service, as Health Officer at Monrovia, and Col. George W. 
Lewis, recently Chief of Internal Police of Porto Rico, as the senior officer, to 
take charge of the reorganization of the Liberian Frontier Force. 
After our Expedition returned, Buell, who visited Monrovia, published 
information on the Native Problem, which he collected from interviews with 
different persons in that city and from various published documents. He did 
not go himself into the interior, and it is exceedingly unfortunate that he attempts 
to draw many conclusions regarding conditions in Liberia that he did not observe 
himself. Many of his statements are merely expressions of erroneous opinion. 
Many of the conclusions he draws about the welfare of Liberia, about the policy 
of the United States toward that country, and about the benefits to be derived 
from the assistance which Mr. Firestone has rendered Liberia, are wrong, and 
convey a mistaken impression of the facts. Nevertheless, in other respects, the 
report is most valuable for much of the extensive documentary evidence that 
he has collected is reliable and serves to emphasize the unfortunate conditions 
which prevail. Since the writer has had opportunity not only to observe some 
of the improved conditions which have come about in Liberia as a result of Mr. 
