Conditions Very Similar to Malayan: Thorough and Systemati¢ Preparation: Doubts'as to Reliability of Labourers:
"White Americans Already Homesick Feo Ova Own London, Jan. 6. plantation work on very business li Whea the Firestone Company lines, taking for instance 4,000 acres engaged its white planters for the land making the European quarter in. the centre of lines drawn to divide ypecing-up work it is carrying on it into four equal squares with a Liberia, it seems to have settled. contract period of 18 months with, Jcentral point. On such a divided up fat the end, a three months holiday, plantation the whole European include the journey heme and population is to be housed on the feentre and looked after and it is back. Gonsequently, some planters who were originally engaged are now Jdone apparently with the object of leither back in this country or pass-providing them with some sort of ing though it to America on their ectal life but also for' medical short period of leave. It is, there-reasons, since doctors will be avail-fore, possible to ascertain som fable in' case of need. Apparently, idea of what the Firestone Company too, there will be some social life, because the company has allowed is doing.
present it is working on four] wives to go out to join their hus-[sections of land which it has rented bands in addition to paying their from the Government; there is no passage. One would not have such thing as purchase, though long thought, however, that the climate! eases have been obtained. Two of} was particularly suitable to women, these plantations are about 40 miles} at all events og present. north of Monrovia and the other two} Thorough and Systematic re in the Cape Palmas district, Undoubtedly the essential part of is to the extreme southeast, In the work is being most thoroughly the former case the lard is virgin, Jand most systematically done and boreas in the latter a good deal fon a scale which would indicate that already has been cleared nnd inthe promoters have every confidence dade part of the old British abandon-{in its permanency and value. There ed plantation workings, which start-fare about 10 Europeans engaged, of fed to produce rubber but were given whom about one-quarter are. Eng: up after many vicissitudes. Up to Tish with Malayan experience, thous! ithe present, about the latter will undoubtedly disappear been more or less mapped out, but in time to come. All the rest are only 5,000 have been actually planted from America and are mostly young and most people think that the University mon of a good type optimistic anticipation of planting a though they seem to feel the ubsenes million acres never will be even! from their own country more than approximately alized. Probably!
Jone would anticipate. In other 100,000 acres represents the limit! words, nearly all of them are home which will be and can be reached. nick and rather glad to get back to The climate is not unlike that of their own fund when they can. The the Malay States. The soil is very pay is very reasonable, since it is fertile and the rainfall very much {70 pee month, with £17 for allowe the same as in the Malay States and ances and all passages out and back re paid og well as full pay on Leave. without, up to the prosect, any tornado' or cyclone. The climate} The language spoken by the natives isa sortot pidgin English, so possesses some points of comparison that no question of studying local with the Malay States, being always! dialect arises, The country is run, more or less hot, though with a us most people know, by some 20,000 peculiar characteristic, which American negroes who wore sent chronicle because it is such as to Jover to mismanage the large tract [affect most of the P at work, fof territory, which they are affect namely, that after six months or 80] ly doing. Amusing stories are told ints there begin to feel an inability to concentrate. I inquired of the corruption of the Government [whether there was any explanation oficial, which pot haps T had better not repeat. They are also intensely of this happening but there seems /mistrustful of the white man in any to be note, except that it is sug. gested that the proximity of. the] arm, even though he is. bringing Jcountry to the Sahara may have large sums of money into the coun. try. They lease him the land, but something to do with it, In any case it would seem that the stay of most] they keep a very watchful eye on him and perhaps with reason, for, men in the country cannot be very] long and probably the fixed period jatter all, there are not so many of Jof 18 months is much too long. Yet, them and with a big Buropean me though malaria exists, life does not flux they would particularly: unhealthy, feularly they 1 pons introduced, even for sporting. planters have been purposes. Europeans are compelled more or less at times on the sick list} observe what appear to be very and, I fancy, even the medical men foolish restrictions imposed by the have suffered. negro officials and I think the only Labour Plentiful sort of real amusement is on Sun+ days, when the entire Government Labour is, of course, all drawn] fand oficial world turns out and from the tribes of the district. There goes to Church in top-hats, frock is enough of it at present though coats and patent leather boots. whether it will suffice when the There is certainly not much else of Jacreae grows materially is another} interest as Monrovia is only a matter. Moreover, the Inbourers town of a few thousand people with not work on quite the same out much sign of real progress persistent lines as do the natives of So long as the American Govern-Malaya. They do not however, ment is at. ils back the mind long hours and they work for future of rubber is fairly as six shillings per week, of which apsured. There is no reason parently 2/- represents the amount] to think the rubber Jof rice which is supplied to them good. The only criticism which can and which is necessary for. their! be made is that the seeds are hi maintenance. The other 4/- they] taken from tapped trees, which ret clan, but since Sabbath day not the ease in the Malay States, Jobservance is very pruzounced in that country any European who February issue of the offends against it in the smallest re-tal Engineer" is just off the spect runs a great risk of getting] press with several" interesting into trouble, When, however, the has earned a suitable amount, Tikes to retire to the towns or to the backwoods to spend it and it is not yet certain whether he is capable ined effort over a long period.
ly he is a very fine type of and he possesses the pceuliaxity that Iie has a great weakness for} music—of a sort—and the company) factually has arranged for tom-tom performances while he is engaged in his clearance work in the plantations. Me sings much of the time and is always cheerful.
There is no doubt that the Fire-articles. "A Story of Repair Works lon the Yung Ting Io" by Yang Jin is featured, as is a description Jof the washing' plants of the Kailan Atiningg Administration, The "Ori-fontal Engineer" is the journal of the [Association of Chinese and American Engineers and in addition series of articles of general interest, it contains many illustrations. Other clude "China in the Making' subjects month's. issue A.W, Grabau, "Long Telephones in Spain", excerpts front the Blue Book of the British China Iniemnity Advisory Committes and of members of the Associn" stoze Company has mapped out 4
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.