The_Open_Door_deel1

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powers such as France and England (see map 3). As Secretary
of the Treasury and Secretary of State Barclay had been involved
in the settlement of the British seizure of Liberian
territory (in 1898 and 1903) and he was also well aware of
the pressure France exerted on Liberia's boundaries. In 1897
a third European Colonial Power, Germany, had still tried to
establish a Protectorate over Liberia. Americo-Liberians had
always been oriented towards the U.S.A. and events in this
country were usually closely observed by the ruling elite of
the African Republic. A significant example forms the assassination
of the President of the U.S.A., William McKinley,
after which some Americo-Liberians named children after the
murdered President. (The most well-known of these Liberians
was McKinley Alfred DeShield, who was born in 1907, and who
was Secretary-General of the True Whig Party from 1943 till
his death in 1978).
In 1908, after new border conflicts with France, President
Barclay sent a mission to the U.S.A., composed of C.B.Dunbar
(who in 1893 had been on a similar mission to the U.S.A.),
Vice-President J.J. Dossen, and former President Gibson, asking
for a formal protection. However* the mission failed to
obtain both an Arbitration Treaty with the U.S.A. and U.S.
assistance in obtaining similar Treaties with notably France
and Great Britain (101). Liberia was afraid it would share
the fate of the Congo Free State, which had disappeared from
the Community of States, as President Barclay stated in an
address delivered in the same year (102).
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Meanwhile, the economic and financial conditions had deteriorated
in Liberia. Like one of his predecessors (Roye), President
Barclay strongly advocated a policy of internal economic
development, but like his predecessor(s) he inherited an empty