Liberian Ban On Racism

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31654, 15 April 1968, Page 10

Liberian Ban On Racism

It was a criminal offence in Liberia to talk in public about racial discrimination, the Secretary of Economic Development in the Liberian Government (Dr Emmett Harmon) said in Christchurch yesterday.

Dr Harmon is in New Zealand on a private visit He accompanied the body of a New Zealander, Mr William Cronin, who was drowned at. Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on March 31. Mr Cronin was a public accountant in Liberia and a personal friend of Dr Harmon. Dr Harmon, who is a graduate in law from Harvard University, said that it was the aim of his Government to set an example in racial equality to the rest of the developing countries in Africa. The law banning discussions of racial discrimination was introduced three years, ago. he said, but there had been no discrimination in Liberia.

The primary concern of the Government now was education, and the whole education system had been brought under one programme.

“It is shameful to say, but Liberia has illiteracy among 75 per cent of its population. The whole interior of the country has to be opened up,” he said. Dr Harmon received his early education in England, then went to the United States, where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree at Howard University before go ing to Harvard. He joined the Government in 1952 and for some time served as President Tubman’s secretary. He was appointed Secretary of Economic De velopment in 1964. However, he may resign from his Government position soon for health reasons.

The mainstays of the country’s economy were its enormous iron ore deposits and its rubber industry, he said. "In spite of thr small size of the country, in five or six years Liberia could be the largest iron ore-producing country in the world,” he said. Dr Harmon is a member of the world governing body of the Episcopalian Church, president of the Liberian Chamber of Commerce, a member of the world executive of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and president of several school boards.

He has the largest law firm in Liberia and runs four engineering, transport, and metalwork companies. Dr Harmon will leave for Sydney today, and will travel back to West Africa by way of Hong Kong, London and Paris.