The_Open_Door_deel1

-92-
products and further provided that the concession agreement would
be subject to review and renegotiation by the Government on or
before December 31, 2009 insofar as it would relate to the 20-year
period from that date to and including December 31, 2029.
Despite the latter provision, in December 1976, after the
conclusion of the Firestone Concession Agreement, the Government
of Liberia notified The Liberia Company that its concession
agreement was to be reviewed. After preliminary discussions in
January 1977 the renegotiations officially started in March of the
same year. However, due to reasons explained before, the
discussions were discontinued in 1978 (see Chapter 3).
Inter-company relations
In Chapter 3 we have already seen that the practice of developing
a labyrinth of companies, subsidiaries, daughter companies
and related companies of subsidiaries, foundations, agencies,
and investments both in Liberia and in other countries was well
understood by the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. This practice
Is therefore not a prerogative of the Liberian Development Corporation
and The Liberia Company but the structures created by
these two companies may be called exemplary.
The activities of former U.S. Secretary of State and former
Lend-Lease Administrator, Edward R. Stettinius, are much more
widespread and comprehensive than is generally known In
Liberia and outside this country. When in 1947 Stettinius
organised the Stettinius Associates-Liberia, Inc., he secured
the participation of Pan American World Airways through its
founder and President, Juan Trippe. As a matter of fact, Trippe
was married to Stettinius' daughter.
During the Second World War the air transportation company had
already become involved in Liberia through the Firestone Tire &
Rubber Company. In 1940 the General Manager of the Firestone
Plantations Company, George Seybold, conducted, negotiations
with the Liberian Government - on behalf of Pan American World
Airways - for the commencement of civil air services to and from
Liberia, resulting in an agreement to operate commercial services
being concluded in July, 1941. When Pan American Airways obtained
the contract from the U.S. Government for ferrying Lend-Lease
planes to Egypt it was Trippe's company which started the
construction of a,runway, which was to develop later on into
Robertsfield, Liberia's first international airfield, using the
Firestone company as its sub-contractors (the airfield was later
temporarily turned over to the U.S. Air Force) (10).
After the war Pan American Airways signed a management contract
with the Liberian Government to run the international airfield.
Though the exact relationship between President Tubman and
Stettinius is not known it is very likely that President Tubman
admired the American businessman-politician and projected his
hopes for the development of the country onto this man who had
such important contacts both with the U.S. Government and with the
U.S. business community. Not only did he in effect offer him the
opportunity and the right to start developing and organizing the
West African republic with the Statement of Understanding signed