Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1940, The British Commonwealth, The Soviet Union, The Near East and Africa, Volume III

853i.79682/6

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Henry S. Villard of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs

[Washington,] November 22, 1940.

Participants:	Mr. Harvey Firestone
	Mr. Murray
	Mr. Villard

Mr. Firestone stated that he had discussed with Pan-American Airways officials the possibility of offering a service to Monrovia in conjunction with the new winter route of the company, which uses Bolama, Portuguese Guinea, as a base in Africa. Pan-American Airways had agreed to run a shuttle service from Bolama to Monrovia once a week and a contract for this purpose had been offered to President Barclay of Liberia.

Mr. Firestone said that this service by Pan-American Airways would bring Monrovia within three days of New York and would be of inestimable aid to the Firestone Rubber Plantations in its operations in Liberia. The shuttle service between Bolama and Monrovia would connect with the trans-Atlantic Clipper planes flying between Lisbon and New York. The fare between New York and Monrovia would be about five hundred dollars, and the cost of the shuttle service to Pan-American Airways would be approximately ten thousand dollars a month. Seaplanes about the size of the Sikorsky would be used on this run.

Pan-American Airways had appointed Mr. George Seybold, general manager of the Firestone interests in Liberia, to represent the air transportation company in negotiations with the Liberian Government. The contract submitted to President Barclay was modelled on one recently concluded between the company and the Dominican Republic, but was designed to exclude any other American company from operating rights in Liberia. The contract provided for subsequent extension of Pan-American operations both within Liberia and across the South Atlantic, as the Pan-American apparently had in mind the eventual extension of its operations down the West Coast of Africa to Capetown. The present contract would give the company an entering wedge in Liberia to build up experience and background.

Mr. Firestone did not know whether it would be necessary to obtain the approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board for the shuttle service between Monrovia and Bolama, or whether the Pan-American Airways company intended to ask for a United States Government subsidy in this connection.