The_Open_Door_deel1

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was to be free of any additional charge, and the Government's
eagerness to have this area developed and equipped with a port
and related facilities may account for this deliberate
duplication of a right granted to "LeTourneau of Liberia, Ltd.",
only a few months earlier. Both companies, LeTourneau of Liberia
Ltd. and the African Fruit Company, could thus claim the same area
in Sin,oe County, the Baffu Bay area, as part of their concession
area (see below). It will be seen later on that such practices
resulting in the (partly) overlapping of concession areas granted
would occur more frequently as the number of concession agreements
signed increased. The weak and inefficient structure of the
country's administration however, was then chiefly to be blamed
for these situations, which - sooner or later - inevitably
resulted in conflicts between foreign investors (20).
The company accepted the obligation to assist Liberian citizens in
cultivating bananas or any other agricultural products and to buy
such bananas or other products for exportation at reasonable
prices subject to quality. It is noteworthy that after the failure
of the banana-venture, a start was made with the growing of rubber
and the subsequent buying of this product from Liberian producers,
at prices dictated by the Firestone Plantations Company. The new
management, after 1974, persisted in these activities.
As regards the use of labour the company promised to employ, in
general, only Liberian unskilled labour for which it obtained the
Government's commitment of assisting the company in securing an
adequate, quiet and obedient labour force (no strikes or
interruption of production allowed). In case existing villages
and/or their inhabitants impeded the work and progress of the
company, the African Fruit Company, under the Statement of
Understanding signed with the Government, could ask the latter for
the evacuation of these villages provided they were located within
its concession area. This is a particularly interesting clause of
this Agreement though not a novelty in the dealings with foreign
investors (21). As in previous cases, the Government by removing
people from their ancestral lands partly decided the fate of a
population who at this time was still denied the right to vote and
thus to participate - even nominally - in the governing of the
country.
Another interesting, but quite different feature of the Statement
of Understanding was the explicit statement by the African Fruit
Company that its final ratification would depend upon agreement by
the Government of the Federal Republic" of Germany in Bonn. No data
are available that-this was obtained but it may be assumed that the
German Government had approved the Statement of Understanding as
the same Article 9 stated that the African Fruit Company was not
to start its operations under this agreement until after the final
ratification by both contracting parties (although the company
already started its activities in the same year, before the
National Legislature of Liberia had approved the Statement of
Understanding). The German Government, moreover, a few years
later helped finance a port near Greenville, a decision which
was in fact based upon AFC's activities in Sinoe County.