The_Open_Door_deel1

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Another disagreement arose over the payment by Firestone of the
Emergency Relief Fund tax, The E.R.F. Act had been passed by the
National Legislature on March 12, 1915 and was meant to bring
relief to a financial situation which was deteriorating because
the British subjected the country to a blockade and the Government
had pledged its revenue under the 1912 Loan. To evade the
consequenses of the latter commitment a new tax was created, the
E.R.F. tax, to enable the Government to finance its current
expenditures (though it was expressly stipulated that the tax
should only remain in force for the period of the war, and for
four months thereafter (49).
Firestone contested the Government's view that it had to pay the
E.R.F. tax on its Imports which were duty-exempted under the 1926
Planting Agreement, but paid under protest. Whereas Article II(a)
of the Planting Agreement established Firestone's liability to
pay the E.R.F. tax on its properties in Liberia, no mention was
made of the E»ROF. tax in Article II(b) which granted Firestone
duty-free imports (50). On the eve of the signing of the 1935
Supplementary Agreement, President Edwin Barclay in a letter to
the Firestone Plantations Company stated that the payment in the
past of the E.R.F. tax on imports had been unjustified and a
violation of the Planting Agreement and that the company was
entitled to a refund (paid in instalments by the Liberian
Government) (51). This personal interference of the country's
President is only one of the signs of amateurism which
characterized the Government's dealings with the Firestone
Plantation Company in these days.tIt was due to the lack of
appropriate staff and qualified manpower as well as to the level
of underdevelopment. A comparison between the rubber company and
the Government of Liberia showed some remarkable results. On the
Firestone Plantations in Liberia alone some 19,000 people were
employed whereas the civil servant numbered less than 300 and the
Company's wage bill (in Liberia) exceeded the total of
Government's revenue.
The amounts involved in the disputes described above were,
however, relatively small, as were most of the other payments of
the Firestone Plantations Company to the Government of Liberia
(prior to 1951) with the exception of the payments of 1935.
As the tapping of new trees did not start until 1934/1935 and the
value of the rubber from the Mount Barclay Plantations was low
owing to a depressed world rubber price, the financial
contribution of Firestone to the Liberian Treasury in the 1926 -
1935 period merely consisted of the payment of a rental for the
Mount Barclay plantation and of a rent of 6 cents per acre per
annum on the other selected lands (in 1935 an area of 60,000
acres had been planted with rubber). Average yearly payments for
rent and rentals will not have exceeded $ 10,000 and the payment
of a rubber export tax, consular fees, port and harbour dues will
not have materially increased this amount. Prior to 1935 official
reports do not specify Firestone's payments to the Treasury,
except for some port and harbour dues but the highest amount
reported under this source of revenue for the 1932 - 1935 period