882.6176 F 51/128
Agreement Number 1 Between the Government of Liberia and the Firestone Plantations Company, Signed at New York, September 17, 1925
Memorandum of Agreement made and entered into at the City of New York this 17th day of September in the Year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Five by and between the Government of the Republic of Liberia represented by Edwin Barclay Secretary of the State of the said Republic, hereinafter styled the Government, of the first part, and Firestone Plantations Company, a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Delaware, with its principal office in the City of Akron, State of Ohio, United States of America, hereinafter styled the Lessee, of the other part.
Witnesseth—
Article I
That whereas the said Lessee for the purpose of experimentation in the productivity of the soil and the costs of producing rubber on an extended scale in the Republic of Liberia has applied for a lease of the Rubber Plantation known as the Mount Barclay Rubber Plantation situated in the Township of Johnsonville County of Montserrado and Republic of Liberia.
The Government for and in consideration of the payment of the sum of Six thousand dollars ($6,000) per annum in gold coin of the United States of the present standard of weight and fineness, and other covenants hereinafter stipulated to be kept, observed and performed by the Lessee hath agreed to let and by these presents doth grant demise and to farm-let unto the Lessee all that parcel of land situate as aforesaid and known and described as the Mount Barclay Rubber Plantation heretofore occupied by the Liberian Rubber Corporation, being an irregular tract of land containing fifteen hundred acres more or less;
To Have and to Hold the above mentioned and described premises with the buildings which are now or which may hereafter be placed thereon and the appurtenances thereunto appertaining unto the Lessee from the 27th day of June Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-five for the full end and term of ninety-nine years thence next ensuing and fully to be completed and ended, except as herein otherwise provided, the said Lessee yielding and paying therefor unto the Government the rent of Six thousand dollars ($6,000) gold per annum, payable semi-annually, at the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, of the Republic of Liberia, in the City of Monrovia; on the first days of January and July of each year during the full term [Page 451] when this lease shall be in full force and effect; provided however, that should operations by Lessee, on said demised property cease for a period of three consecutive years the rights of Lessee hereunder shall end and be and become thenceforth determined, extinguished, and void anything herein to the contrary notwithstanding; and thereupon all further liability of Lessee, to pay rent hereunder shall likewise cease and be determined and this agreement shall thereafter in all respects be and become null and void, and of no force and effect whatsoever.
Article II
And the Lessee doth Covenant hereby to and with the Government that
- (a)
- For the purposes hereinbefore specified it will take the premises hereby demised and that it will pay or cause to be paid the yearly rent above reserved on the day and in the manner prescribed and that on the last day of said term or any sooner determination of the estate hereby granted, or upon the last day of any extended term, the Lessee shall and will quietly leave and surrender unto the Government all and singular the said demised premises.
- (b)
- And the Lessee doth further covenant and agree to furnish the Government from time to time with full reports of the scientific and technical results of the experiments carried out by the Lessee at said Plantation.
- (c)
- That it will not import unskilled labor for the carrying out of any operations or developments undertaken upon the Plantation hereby demised to it except in the event the local labor supply proves inadequate to the Lessee’s needs.
- (d)
- That in the event the local supply proves inadequate as aforesaid Lessee undertakes and agrees to import only such foreign unskilled labor to supply the local deficiency as may be acceptable to the Government.
- (e)
- That it in addition to the rents above reserved Lessee will pay to the Government a revenue tax of one per centum on the value of all rubber shipped from the Plantation calculated at the New York market prices prevailing at the date of the arrival of the rubber in New York.
- (f)
- The Lessee shall come to an arrangement with the Treasury Department of the Government of Liberia in respect to the collection and payment of poll taxes payable by persons who may be in the employ of the Lessee. But the Lessee shall in no event be held to collect in any year the poll tax for a greater number of employees than the average employed during the year.
- (g)
- That in the case of war or other emergency declared to be such by the Government the said Government shall be entitled to the use of his lines of communication such as telegraph, telephone and wireless established outside or within the limits of the plantation.
Article III
And the Government doth covenant and agree by these presents that the Lessee paying and yielding the yearly rents above reserved and performing the covenants and Agreements aforesaid on his part stipulated to be performed.
- (a)
- Shall and may at all times during the term hereby granted peaceably and quietly have hold and enjoy the said demised premises without any let suit trouble or hindrance from the Government or any person or persons whomsoever.
- (b)
- Shall have the right at its own proper charge and expense to establish lines of communication such as roads and highways outside the limits of the Plantation—provided that such public highways as now exist or are in course of construction through the Plantation be not closed by Lessee but shall remain open to the free and unobstructed use of the public.
- (c)
- All products of Lessee’s plantations and all machinery, tools, supplies and buildings established, constructed or placed upon the leased land or elsewhere for the operation and development of the Lessee’s land holdings and all leasehold interests, improvements and other property, franchises, right and income shall be free of and exempt from any internal revenue or other tax, charge, excise or impost except the revenue tax provided for in Paragraph (e) Article II.
- (d)
- All machinery, tools and supplies of all kinds purchased and imported by Lessee for the operation and development of the lands held by Lessee under this agreement and for the welfare of the employees of Lessee’s enterprise shall be exempt from all customs duties or other import duties. But such import duties, if any, as are now required by the “Agreement for Refunding Loan, 1912”, or any modification thereof, shall be paid by the Lessee until such agreement shall be so modified as to reduce or abrogate such duties required on such imports by Lessee in which event Lessee shall be required to pay only such import duties as are demanded by such agreement as modified. Any articles which may be used by Lessee in trade or barter, or in payment for labor, shall not be deemed “supplies” within the meaning of this section.
- (e)
- Lines of communication such as telegraph, telephone lines, railroads and canals constructed and established by Lessee outside the confines of the Lessee’s tracts selected hereunder shall during [Page 453] the life of this agreement be exempted from all taxation so long as they be used only for the purposes of the operations of Lessee upon lands held under this Agreement. In the event that such lines of communication shall be used by Lessee for general commercial purposes to serve others for hire then while so used they shall be subject to taxation under the general laws of Liberia.
- (f)
- Should the rent above reserved or any part thereof be behind or unpaid or any day of payment whereon the same ought to be paid as aforesaid, or if default should be made in any of the covenants hereinbefore contained on the part of the Lessee or be paid kept and performed, and if such default in the payment of rent or otherwise shall continue after six months written notice of the existence of such default served by the Government upon the Lessee then it shall be lawful for the Government to cancel this lease and to reenter into and upon the demised premises, and to again repossess and enjoy the same. But if the Lessee shall within said period of six months after written notice aforesaid make good the default complained of in said notice no right of cancellation shall thereafter exist because of such default. The notice required by this paragraph to be served on the Lessee shall be delivered to the representative of the Lessee in the Republic of Liberia and a duplicate thereof shall be simultaneously sent by registered mail to the President of the Lessee at its head office in the City of Akron, State of Ohio, United States of America. The Lessee shall promptly notify the Government of any change in the location of its head office, and thereafter any such notice shall be addressed accordingly.
Article IV
- (a)
- The Lessee shall have the right to engage in any operations other than agricultural upon the lands held under this Agreement and to utilize any product or materials of or upon said lands; but any mining or other similar operations shall be subject to the laws of the Republic of Liberia unless the parties hereto shall agree upon special terms therefor.
- (b)
- It is further agreed that at the expiration of the term of this lease hereinabove provided or any extension thereof or upon the cancellation of this Agreement at any earlier time, such buildings and improvements erected by the Lessee upon the land selected hereunder as shall not have been removed before the expiration or cancellation of the lease or any extension or renewal thereof, shall become the property of the Government of Liberia without charge or condition.
- (c)
- The rights by this Agreement granted to the Lessee shall not be sold, transferred or otherwise assigned by the Lessee to any [Page 454] person, firm, group or trust without the written consent thereto of the Liberian government previously had.
In Witness Whereof The parties hereto have hereunto set their hands and seals to this Agreement in duplicate the year and day above written.
Secretary of State
Witness
Firestone Plantations Company
By
President
Attest:
Secretary