298 JOURNEY WITHOUT MAPS

At this election, though, there may have been a
very slight uncertainty just because the President was
taking it so seriously and instead of surrendering his
office was ensuring, by his plebiscite, that he would
hold it for more than the length of three turns. There
were rumours that the Cabinet was split, that Mr,
Gabriel Dennis, the Secretary of the Treasury, who
had distinguished himself by the sharp eye he kept
on the funds of the Republic, was going to be
jettisoned by his colleagues, and there was the un-
usual factor, too, that the President in power had as
his opponent a former President who had shown his
astuteness in manipulating the political machine.
(For years the Presidential opponent had been Mr.
Faulkner, the head of the People's Party and of the
Monrovian ice factory, who had no experience in the
finer shades of political manipulation. Indeed, ex-
President King won the first round. For when Mr.
Faulkner finally retired from the contest and his sup-
porters joined the Unit True Whig Party, otherwise
known as the dissident Whigs, half a dozen members
of the People's Party kept together long enough to
hold a convention to nominate Mr. King. As Mr.
King was also nominated by .the Unit True Whig
Party, by Liberian law he would be able to have a
representative of each party at every polling booth,
while the Government would only have one, a very
important point.

It will be seen that Liberian politics are com-
plicated. Corruption does not make for simplicity
as might be supposed. It may be all a question of
cash and printing presses and armed police, but

thjngs have to be done with an air. Crudity as far