The_Open_Door_deel1

-43-
twentieth century the Presidents Arthur Barclay and Daniel Howard
had visited the Gbo Gola section and the Gola and Vai areas
respectively, but none of these visits were far from Monrovia.
In the 1920's President King had travelled from Sierra Leone to
Monrovia, guarded by two hundred soldiers, and carried in a
hammock (the tribal population was by law obliged to supply
carriers). After disarming the tribal people President Edwin
Barclay travelled fairly extensively in the interior of the
country (152).
Barclay did not only remove this (tribal) obstacle for his
successor. Another obstacle hindering the establishment of an
active Open Door Policy had been the absence of a well-equipped
Port. This had prevented the exploitation of the rich Bomi Hills
iron ore deposits by the Dutch company which he had granted a
concession. During the Second World War President Barclay
obtained the promise of the U.S. Government to construct a modern
port in Monrovia. This War, which had been preceded by the Great
Economic Depression, had contributed to the economic difficulties
in which his Administration found itself. Just before he handed
over power to William Tubman, President Edwin Barclay made the
U.S. dollar sole legal tender in Liberia, and brought a U.S.
Geological Mission to the Republic. Thus, William Tubman found
his way paved for him and he certainly was not original when in
January -1944 he said in his first Inaugural Address:
"(..,) Ue shall encourage the investment of foreign capital
in the development of the resources of the country,
preferably on a partnership basis. (,..)" (153)
although later on it was pretended by Liberian authors of school
books, as well as by politicians, that he had invented the "Open
Door Policy".
In 1945 President Tubman granted an important concession to
Lansdell Christie for the exploitation of the Bomi Hills iron ore
deposits. Christie, a former U.S. Army officer who had served in
Liberia during the Second World War, was granted exclusive
exploration rights in an area of about three million acres and
exclusive mining rights in respect of all minerals except gold,
diamonds, and platinum in an area of maximum 25,000 acres (to be
chosen from the exploration area) . The concession was given for
a period of 80 years. This concession agreement, too, met with
the disapproval of a number of Liberians who notably criticised
the terms of the agreement, which they found too generous for the
concessionaire. In Chapter 7 it is described how President
Tubman silenced these critics with jail sentences and dismissals
from public posts.
Like his predecessors Edward Roye, Arthur Barclay and Edwin
Barclay, President Tubman looked for a loan to finance the
country's much needed "internal development". His proposals in
this respect were presented in a Five-Year Development Plan
(1946 - 1950) but he failed to obtain the funds needed to
implement the Plan. The following year, in 1947, he signed a