The_Open_Door_deel1

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The commission created in 1893 which was sent to the U.S.A. also
asked the Government of that country to assist in the reorganization
of the Liberian Customs, Treasury, Post Office,
Education, Agricultural and Police Institutions by sending U.S.
officials who would administer these affairs in the country for
|| an indefinite period. Furthermore, U.S. investors were invited
to invest in Liberia, In both cases the commission was
unsuccessful (77) but notably the last instruction which was
given to the Liberian delegation by President Joseph Cheeseman
shows that important changes had taken place in Liberia. The
number of Americo-Liberians who supported the idea of opening up
the country and to have it developed with the aid of foreign
investors had clearly increased. President Cheeseman, too, was
in favour of foreign investments. Edward Blyden, one of the
country's most outspoken advocates of foreign investments, was
appointed ambassador to Great Britain by him and allotted the
task of encouraging British investors to come to Liberia (78).
The gradual increase of European economic interests in Liberia
In the very early 1880's the dominating view on the economic
development of the country was still characterized by the
emphasis on the leading role Liberians themselves should play
in this development process. However, signals of a forthcoming
change became gradually visible. In 1881, during the
Administration of President Gardiner (1878 - 1883), the
Legislature allowed more coastal villages (inhabited by tribal
people) to be added to the list of Ports of Entry (79). In the
same year the unsuccessful Mining Company of Liberia (see above)
was succeeded by the Union Mining Company. The latter company
also was completely Liberian-owned. It was granted important
privileges but also failed to be successful owing to the lack of
sufficient capital (80).
The Presidential elections of 1885 also showed that the
political equilibrium - fragile as it was - was still controlled
by the opponents on the matter of foreign participation in the
economic development of the country. The rivalry between the two
presidential candidates is illustrative in this respect: Hilary
R.W. Johnson, son of a famous settler (Elijah Johnson) who in
1884 had become the first Liberian President born on Liberian
soil, and Edward W. Blyden, born in the West Indies, and arrived
in Liberia in 1850. Johnson and Blyden initially had been friends
and school-mates, but they had become ennemies because of their
different political views. Blyden, who claimed to be of Iboorigin
(81), favoured an opening up of the country by foreign
investors whereas Johnson was against such a policy. Blyden was
definitely one of the most remarkable and outstanding Liberians
of the nineteenth century but he was also a controversial
person who did not always take decisions which were easy to
explain. Though he advocated an "open door policy" he had
accepted the nomination of the (mulatto-dominated) Republican
Party - which traditionally favoured a "closed door policy",