You have probably heard about Polish colonial aspirations in the interwar period. The first association is, of course, Madagascar, but Liberia was also mentioned among the potential directions of expansion. There is a history of a great improvisation and ... a big flop with it.
Liberia was the only independent Negro state in Africa in the interwar period. It was founded in the first half of the nineteenth century as the country of liberated blacks from North America. It was supposed to be based on the harmonious coexistence of former slaves and indigenous people. It soon turned out, however, that the immigrants from the United States subjugated the indigenous people, and then introduced the well-known labor system based on slavery, slave trade and the exploitation of indigenous tribes.
For decades, this was not a problem for anyone - except, of course, for those who were enslaved (but they were not asked for their opinion). In fact, Liberia even became one of the founding countries of the League of Nations. The situation changed only in the 1930s. On October 31, 1931, the aid plan for this country was adopted.
Port of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. In the 1930s, members of the Maritime and Colonial League recognized Liberia as the perfect location for our colonial aspirations.
In fact, it was about reducing him to the role of the protectorate of the League of Nations. Of course, the government in Monrovia (the capital of Liberia) did not want to agree to such a solution and in June 1933 rejected the "generous" proposal. This ran the risk of Liberia being removed from the ranks of the organization. In this situation, the authorities of the African state turned to Poland for help .
As for the Poles, they were serious about gaining influence in West Africa. It was believed that the best way would be to establish economic relations between the Republic of Poland and Liberia, which was looking for support. This, of course, required a wider initiative and the launch of a regular shipping line from Gdynia to West African ports.
Liberia is about… here. On the map from 1935.
All it took was some impulse to stimulate private and state capital to create an expensive connection. The catalyst was to be a "pioneering" cruise of a Polish merchant ship to Liberia. His organization fell to the Maritime and Colonial League (hereinafter LMiK), and the unit was called s.s. "Poznań". But let's not get ahead of the sequence of events.
Why Poland?
As you can see, the interests turned out to be convergent. The Liberians wanted our help, and we secretly wanted a scrap of the Dark Continent for ourselves. Only one question arises - why Liberia asked Poland for help? As it turns out, there are at least two possible explanations.
The first was given in his book Liberia, Liberia, Liberka (Warsaw 1936) Janusz Makarczyk, who on April 28, 1934 signed the LMiK agreement with the parliament of Liberia. He argued that it was about not suspecting our country of colonial ambitions (sic!).
Another explanation was found in Maritime and Colonial League (Gdańsk 1983) by Tadeusz Białas. He believed that the decisive factor here was simply Liberia's desire to win Polish kindness. It was Poland that was the neutral rapporteur for the Liberian issue in the League of Nations Council.
Most likely, the fact that the Liberian authorities turned to the Second Republic for help was most likely due to the fact that it was Poland that was the neutral rapporteur for the Liberian issue in the Council of the League of Nations. The photo shows the League of Nations Council meeting.
Anyway, LMiK had to see a real chance of entering Liberia, perhaps not only commercial (colonial? Colonial?).
Great improvisation
The task of exploring the ground for the escapade to the African land fell to LMiK delegates:the aforementioned Janusz Makarczyk and Jan Dmochowski from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPiH). Apart from signing the aforementioned agreement, they were supposed to conduct a market research and establish contacts with potential importers of Polish goods.
Nevertheless, the organization of the cruise ran into problems from the very beginning. The first was to find a suitable ship. The first choice was the wooden schooner "Cap Nord", which was purchased in August 1934 in Kiel and renamed "Elemka". The decisive factor here was a very low price - only 24 thousand. reichsmark. As it happens on such "occasions", the purchase turned out to be a complete failure.
At first, it was planned to carry out a renovation in the Gdynia shipyard, the cost of which was to amount to approx. PLN 150 thousand. PLN (or approx. 75 thousand reichsmark!). Only that the unit did not even manage to get there. During the voyage, she suffered a serious accident due to a storm and was forced to go to a shipyard in Gdańsk. Initially, it was planned that the repairs would take 2-3 months, but they lasted until the end of March 1935. Meanwhile, time was pressing. In the end, it was decided to charter a bulk carrier s.s. from Żegluga Polska. "Poznań".
The second difficulty was choosing the right range of goods that were to hit the African market. To put it bluntly, the idea of economic expansion in Africa did not find fertile ground among indigenous industrialists.
"Poznań" where brave Polish conquistadors (pfu! Traders!) Sailed to Africa.
The result was that MPiH instructed the League to establish cooperation with Kompania of Overseas Trade, which gathered entrepreneurs interested in exchanging with non-European countries. Eventually, after long negotiations, the League and Kompania established a limited liability company under the name of the Polish Trade Society with West Africa.
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In Africa
In the end, having overcome a series of further complications, on December 28, 1934, "Poznań" set off on a journey to Africa. During the almost four-month voyage, it was commanded by the captain of the great shipping, Leon Rusiecki.
The expedition was attended by:Eng. Stefan Pażycki on behalf of LMiK, Tadeusz Kraśnicki representing Kompania Handlu Zamorski, Zygmunt Dreszer being the correspondent of the League and a number of Polish dailies, and Stanisław Lipiński, who was to capture everything on film.
The cargo holds of the ship held about 200 various types of goods with a total weight of almost 2,000 tons. Cement, commercial iron and salt predominated. However, there are also textiles, soap, sugar and enameled dishes. The last name was just a potty which later became the subject of a series of jokes, which is not surprising. In general, the structure of the load indicated a poor identification of the needs of the target market, which had a clear impact on the demand.
After reaching Africa, other problems arose. This time, they were caused by the action of large European companies that were afraid that Poles would open their own trading post in this region. The main agent of Compagnie française de l'Afrique occidentale outright refused to accept the goods, despite earlier arrangements made in Warsaw.
The first houses of Polish growers in the Liberian jungle. Our colonizers of the Black Continent lived in such conditions.
It got to a point where the ship's arrival was boycotted and even attempts were made to influence the authorities not to allow them to land. Zygmunt Dreszer interestingly characterized Swiss agents of another great company - Union Trading Co., claiming that in business they are worse than Jews; they lie like a note, they bargain despite the price being tapped by the headquarters .
On the other hand, about the British United Africa Co. he wrote: she decided to abolish us, anticipating a future competitor . So it wasn't much of an exaggeration that one chapter of his book was entitled "The Battle of the Takoradi."
One of the Polish settlers in Liberia on a castor plantation. The photo was originally published in the "Sea" monthly (No. 11/35)
The quality of the goods also left something to be desired. An example was the aforementioned enameled dishes (read:potties), which, due to poor protection, got broken and nobody wanted to buy them.
Ultimately, however, it was possible to sell the entire contents of the hold on - as it was put then - "good conditions". Colonial products were also purchased:cocoa and palm nuts, which were to be delivered to Poland.
Liberia not for Poland
The entire escapade ended in a serious negative financially. In addition, Żegluga Polska issued a bill to LMiK in the amount of approx. PLN 44 thousand. PLN for the charter of "Poznań".
Finally, after long negotiations, taking into account the social nature of the League, on October 28, 1936, the claims were reduced to a symbolic zloty. However, it was not the economy that played the most important role. After all, the cruise was supposed to pave the way and allow to gain experience needed for further planned expansion.
Under the agreement of April 28, 1934, it was planned to lease at least 60 hectares of land in Liberia to 50 Polish growers for 50 years, with an option to enlarge this area. The league also obtained the right to establish a society for the exploitation of natural resources, and Polish merchants and traders received a MFN clause.
Then and later there were rumors of a secret military annex, which was to ensure the possibility of Poland recruiting 100,000 auxiliary army. However, it should be put among the fairy tales.
The authorities of the Maritime and Colonial League had great promises after the colonization of Liberia, in the end nothing came of it. The photo shows representatives of the LMiK Council at an audience with Ignacy Mościcki. The president received as a gift the tusks of an elephant hunted by the growers of the League in Liberia.
So much for the plans. The entire Liberian "adventure" ended as a result of the actions of countries with interests in Liberia (mainly the USA and Great Britain). Polish growers were accused, inter alia, of for illegal import of weapons intended for use in a military coup.
There were also accusations that Poland supported these actions. At the end of 1937, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to end the League's action in Liberia.
As a result, the voyage of "Poznań" was the first, but also the last in twenty years, a commercial expedition of the ship under the Polish flag to the region of West Africa. We had to wait for the next one until the end of the 1950s.