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of the Country : The Ljstemer of Monrovia. The head of the
Party 1s always the President.
The public authority is represented by the Liberian
Frontier Force. Something between Army and Police, the LFF
ís well trained, relatively well disciplined”and poorly equip¬
ped. It may be sufficient to keep up the order against lighter
disorders by rioting natives. Observers nevertheless doubt
whether it would be sufficient even to mest a serious domestic
challenge.
Financially the country is fairly well balanced, since
the finances are handled by a, very able American, who prevents
to much overspending by the Departments. While he has an up¬
hili fight in the srtments? his fight is even more diffi¬
sult against the desire of the President to spend a lot on lu¬
xuries. Half the budget is paid by customs, the other half by
taxes. Tye taxes are light. The payments by foreign corpora¬
tions in taces are the second most important sources of reve¬
nes
The ruler of the ecuntry at present is President
William 8. Tubmann. He is in the upper fifties, ver black and
quite well educated. He is a dynamic person, authoritarian,
generous towards his friends, terrible to his ehemies. He is
reluctant to do office work - some would call him lazy. He
likes to spend money, and spends a lot of 4t. Most people say
that he is financially interested and uses his position for
the furtherance of his wealth. He is a great nightelubber, and
can be found every evening doing the Hot Spote of Monrovia.
His assistent and the real power in the governement is bachelor
Foreign Minister Gabriel Dennis, an Americaneduceated man who
4s known as-being honest - probably the only honest man in po¬
liyics in Lyberia. He is quite able, does most of the needed
work, and is the only man of the governement, who is awake
to the possible dangers to his country e
Because the weaknesses of L“beria are so great, that
the dangers in the immediate future must be rated very high.
Obeervers on the spot say, that the country at present is utte r¬
ly unable to withstand a Communist assault from the inside for
the following, almost structural reasons !
The first of these reasons is, that the population
at present is composed of three classes ? the 12.000 favoured
American Liberians, the citizens. They are a lazy, degenerate
groupe Their number decreases steadily. Theyshy away from
work. Most of them, if not all, have governement jobs. Added
to them is the second class, the 80.000 assimilated natives.
They have the more menial jobé in the administration. They are
also lazy, and their number too is falling rapidly. The third
class finally are the 1.800.000 natives, distributed in the