LIBERIA: Delighted

Sleek, black President Charles Dunbar Burgess King of the West African Negro Republic of Liberia came to Paris last week, vacationing after the exhausting campaign which resulted in his election to the Presidency for a third term (TIME, May 23). Parisian reporters called President King “representative of that type of African who is outwardly Europeanized, but is still at heart a fine, genuine black.” Beaming, President King told these newsgatherers how heartily he welcomes the great U. S. Firestone rubber plantation development in Liberia (TIME, Dec. 20, 1926).

“We are delighted! Dee-lighted!” said Mr. King in English.* “The Firestone lease occupies only about 1/25 of our rubber lands; and, personally, I like to think of Liberia as the gateway to West Africa by which American capital, manufactures and opinions may enter and spread across all Africa.”

*The official language of Liberia.