The_Open_Door_deel1

CHAPTER 5
OTHER RUBBER PLANTATIONS
THE B.F. GOODRICH COMPANY (1)
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The B.F.Goodrich Company, a corporation organized under the laws
of the State of New York, United States of America, in the early
1950's wanted to negotiate a concession with the Government of
Liberia for the establishment of a rubber plantation in that
country. It was attracted by the many, and apparently unlimited
possibilities of investment in this West African country. For that
purpose the company drafted a concession agreement which combined
the liberal and generous terms of the Agreements made with
Firestone in 1926°, with amendments through 1953, and with the
African Fruit Company in 1952, and even added some privileges.
Its attempt to secure a 99-year lease contract on a vaguely defined
area in three different counties (Montserrado, Grand Cape
Mount, and Grand Bassa Counties), however, failed as its proposal
met with opposition from nearly all Government officials
commenting on the draft.
Times had changed though not to the extent of ruling out another
concession agreement which would still be extremely favourable
to the company and detrimental to the country. The ensuing discussion
on the granting of this concession to the B.F. Goodrich
Company (BFG) is partly based upon the comments of a group of
eleven government officials, most of them cabinet ministers, on
the second draft agreement, and partly upon the final concession
agreement between the Government of Liberia and BFG signed on
July 9, 1954.
The comments of this Group of Eleven" Officials on the Draft Conc
ession Agreement clearly show that the Liberian Government in
this period was far from being composed only of incompetent, inefficient,
or careless administrators and politicians, and further
demonstrate that, despite sensible criticism and sincere advice,
decisions were taken which were adverse to the interest of
the country. The lack of control by the National Legislature, the
absence of a free press, and the wide-spread illiteracy in the
country greatly facilitated this process, virtually "controlled by
President Tubman. A badly trained, hardly interested, and partly
non-existent administrative middle-cadre of government officials
became responsible for the supervision of the actual
implementation of the contractual provisions. Their failure to do
a good job resulted, among other things, in a lack of data which
in its turn perpetuated the weakness and inefficiency of the
country's administrative structure.
In the light of the following it may be interesting to know
that President Tubman sent the "Summary of Proposed Concession"
on Friday, March 26, 1954 to eleven people and wanted their observations
and comments by Monday morning, March 29. These