Front Door or Back?

Up & down their free little Republic, Liberians last week were debating: 1) whether to come actively into the war; 2) who would be their next President.

Declaration of war on the Axis seemed inevitable. Most Liberians more than approved of this. But they could not help remembering how, after they declared war on Germany last time, a U-boat came along and bombarded tiny Monrovia, their capital.

The Presidential election is not scheduled until next May, but Liberians like to spend a vehement year talking politics to make sure they pick the right man for the next eight years. There are already six aspirants for the job but the two candidates most talked about are Secretary of State Clarence L. Simpson and the Supreme Court's Associate Justice William V. S. Tubman. Political wiseacres consider Candidate Tubman the election's dark horse.

The real debate, however, was whether affable Edwin Barclay, President for the past 13 years, would leave the Executive Mansion "by the backway drive."* Liberia's new Constitution says the President may not succeed himself. But in times like these, the President's supporters, taking their cue from the great paternal democracy across the Atlantic, were beginning to call able Edwin Barclay indispensable, were talking about Term III and changing the Constitution to make it possible.

* In Liberia, as the new President enters by the front, the old leaves by the backway drive.

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