The_Open_Door_deel1

XVII
The other concessions which were granted in the same period
were not successful either. Robert LeTourneau, from Texas,
U.S.A., obtained a large concession area but never started
operations on a large scale. Juan Jesus Ramos Gonzales, from
Spain, shared his fate. Somewhat different was the outcome
of attempts to develop oil palm plantations.
Palm products may be considered traditional Liberian products.
In fact, it was one of the early settlers who introduced palm
kernels in international trade around the middle of the 19th
century. Thus one may wonder why the opportunity to export
these products had not been taken earlier. In 1966 and 1967
two concession agreements were signed which had the largescale
cultivation of oil palm plantations as their first objective.
The first involved was the Getty Oil Company from the
U.S.A. and the second agreement was signed by a joint undertaking
of U.S. and Liberian investors. Although it is too early
to refer to these projects as failures, results so far have
been very modest. Nevertheless, the outcome of these companies
is of extreme importance since the production of oil palm products
seems to offer an excellent opportunity to diversify the
national economy.
Chapter 5 deals again with the rubber sector: four foreignowned
rubber plantations and one foreign-owned rubber processing
factory (this processing is done for export purposes
only and does not alter the primary product character of the
product exported). U.S. capital dominates in this sector though
particularly since the late 1950's Dutch investors showed a
considerable increase of activities in this respect. Original
documents related to the preparation of the concession agree- ~.
ment which in 1954 finally was signed with the B.F. Goodrich
Company reveal that President Tubman's advisors did not always
agree with the generous conditions which characterized some
concession agreements. However, the outcome of the negotiations
with B.F. Goodrich confirm the impression that power was truly
concentrated in the hands of William Tubman.
The following three Chapters deal with the mining sector.
Chapter 6 focuses attention on the gold and diamond mining in
Liberia whose importance is often under-estimated. Illegal activities
of foreign companies combined with a lack of control
and supervision by the Government are the main reasons why
Liberia has benefited little from these natural resources. The
search for oil had already in 1956 resulted in a concession
granted to a U.S. investor. The concession area covered over
1.5 million acres. It was, therefore, larger than the 1926
concession to Firestone, which was much criticised on account
of its size. However, both this and another attempt (in 1964)
to turn Liberia into an oil producing country failed. The
search for minerals other than gold, diamonds, and iron ore
concludes this Chapter.
Chapter 7 deals with two iron ore mining companies behind
which there was one man: Lansdell Christie, a former U.S. Army