The_Open_Door_deel1

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scribed above., providing such substituted areas are approved
by the Government and are not then already included
within the concessions of others," (11)
ensures that the company at present sees no reason to worry about
its concession area, apart from what it discovered in 1975. When
in that year BFG showed interest in expanding its plantation it
found out that its concession area was partly overlapping the area
granted to the United Logging Company under a concession agreement
signed in 1973. As under the 1954 Agreement BFG was given the
exclusive rights in this area, the company protested (12).
The relative administrative chaos and organisational shortcomings
which characterise the governmental offices in Monrovia and other
places in Liberia have resulted in the granting of exclusive
rights in the same part of the country to different investors, for
different purposes, and under different agreements. This situation
is caused mainly by the non-availibility of relevant documents:
this can be attributed to the negligence of the foreign investors
in not submitting the proper information, and to a great extent to
the disappearance of the submitted papers, reports, letters, and
other material, in, or in transit between, the various ministries
and governmental agencies. The losing of important documents and
the carelessness with which historical records are kept seem to be
chronic in the country: one author described how the original
Declaration of Independence was found in a dust-bin (by President
Edwin Barclay!) (13) and the original copy of the 1926 Agreement
between the Government and the Firestone Plantations Company had
been reported lost in 1933 (14)» When in 1976 the Government
contemplated the establishment of an industrial plantation in an
area in Grand Cape Mount County, partly overlapping the B.F.
Goodrich concession, it had first to request from the company the
relevant copies of the documents that describe the exact
geographical location of the concession area. Subsequently it had
to start discussions with the company to get permission to use
part of this area which was not occupied by BFG.
The attitude towards labour and employment policies and practices
was reflected by BFG's obligations, in the final concession
agreement, not to import unskilled labour, to endeavour to train
Liberians for various positions, and to take safety devices and
measures in order to protect the health and safety of its employees
though the addition to the last obligation
"as are provided and observed under comparable conditions
and in similar regions for operations of a similar nature
and size"
may be interpreted as perpetuating an undesirable situation (see
Chapter 13).
The Acting Secretary of Public Instruction was the only one to
observe that the draft neither contained references relative to
the children of BFG's employees, nor did it provide for schools
for them. Neither did the final concession agreement. The
Postmaster-General doubted the effectiveness of BFG's commitment