882.6176 F 51/207
Mr. W. D. Hines to the Liberian Secretary of State (Barclay)
Excellency: I have the honour to address you and acknowledge receipt of your communication of June 18th. I desire to express our appreciation of your courtesy in this matter and in compliance therewith I respectfully submit some minor changes which I feel would make the Agreements more acceptable to my Principals in accordance with my general instructions.
Realising the time conditions under which the final document was prepared, I desire to call attention to one subject which I understood was agreed upon in our conference of June 16th but to which no reference is made in the document at hand namely:
Provision for the Lessee to engage in such other agricultural pursuits, i. e., foodstuffs and the like which will enable him to effectively and efficiently operate his property.
Also the provision that the Lessee will be entitled to the opportunity to engage in any other operations upon his holdings under the same terms and conditions granted any other individual or corporation and under the laws and statutes of the Republic of Liberia. As we pointed out we desired this as protection from any possible future outside interference.
It would also be much appreciated if you would consider the matter of qualifying the road building clauses as regards routes and specifications so that they would not be taken to provide for any routes [Page 369] that would be ineffective for our use and place a limit upon the amount necessary to expend per mile.
We also request consideration of the insertion of clauses exempting our properties from any taxes other than those specified and for exemption of our lines of communications from taxation while they are being used by us and in view of the fact we have made provision for their public use at all times.
I also beg leave to submit for your consideration a provision in the Harbour Agreement to the effect that the cost of maintenance and repairs shall not be deducted from the Port and Harbour dues thus assigned when such dues fall below a certain minimum figure. This figure could be determined later. We respectfully submit that such a provision would be required by our Principals in order to determine the amortization of their investment.
In view of the shortness of time, I beg leave to inform you that if such additional provisions as I have suggested are agreeable to the Government they might be placed in the form of an addenda [sic] to the document already submitted and could be incorporated later in the final Agreement. If satisfactory to the Government and Your Excellency this would be satisfactory to us.
With expressions of esteem and appreciation, I would appreciate the privilege of discussing these suggestions in case you desire further explanation of them.
I have [etc.]