The_Open_Door_deel1

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cessions to a Spanish national, Juan Jesus Ramos Gonzales. One concession
concerned the start of "a plantation of products and crops
produceable in Liberia", for which purpose a company, Juan Jesus
Ramos Associates Plantations, was created. The second concession
gave the same Juan Jesus Ramos Gonzales the right to build a
Refrigeration Plant within the area of the city of Monrovia, for
which another company was created, the "Compania Hispano
Liberiana" (50). The Juan Jesus Ramos Associates Plantations, was
granted a 80-year concession on 100,000 acres of land outside
Montserrado County. Rentals charged, privileges granted, and
obligations accepted were virtually the usual ones or similar to
those agreed upon with The Liberia Company and LeTourneau of
Liberia.
The scope of the new company, however, would have been limited to
agricultural activities, plantation development and livestock
breeding, but included also the right to fell trees, provided they
were needed for to the development of a plantation. A rather
unusual right was granted when it was agreed that the company
could divert the course of any waterway within nearest distance of
its operations for the purpose of supplying its factories and of
facilitating the transportation to or from the factories of logs
or any other forestal or agricultural products (51). No fee or
compensation for damages, no consultation with or approval from
the Government of Liberia or from the inhabitants of the area
concerned was required. After the expiration of a 5 year tax
holiday, the company's tax liability was agreed to be limited to
a maximum of 14? of net profits.
This Agreement between the Government of Liberia and Juan Jesus
Ramos Gonzales was approved by the Liberian Legislature on May 30,
1952. Only this Act is left as an evidence of the fact that both
parties once decided to start this undertaking. Nothing is known
about the real investors, whether they ever took any action, when
or why it was decided not to proceed with the undertaking.
THE LIBERIAN OPERATIONS INC.
After having tried unsuccessfully to diversify the country's
agricultural, export-oriented output with the participation of
foreign investors, the Government in 1960 initiated the largescale
cultivation of oil palms. With the aid of the "Institut de
Recherches pour les Huiles et Oleagineux" (IRHO) it started a
small experimental oil palm plantation in New Cess, Grand Bassa
County, but some years later the Government decided to discontinue
these experimental operations as one of the measures taken to
solve the financial crisis of the early sixties. However, as a
foreign investor had become interested in the project and its
possibilities, a concession was granted on December 14, 1965 to
Tidewater Oil Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Getty Oil
Company, under which the Government was paid $ 125,000 for the
assets of the oil palm plantation. The agreement was approved by
the National Legislature on April 14, 1966 (the "effective date"
of the agreement).