The Execution of Mr Stokes.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 141, 13 December 1895, Page 2

The Execution of Mr Stokes.

■ HOW HE CAME BY HIS DEATH. A correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette has fairly ron to earfcb Dr j Michanx, who was present when Capt. j Lothaire, of the Congo Fxe& State, ordered the execution of Mr Stokes, the English ivory trader. As we (London Daily Chronicle) were the first to insist on the thorough investigation of this matter, we congratulate our contemporary upon tbe way in which it has obtained a most important piece of testimony. Dr Michaux declined to ex* press any opinion, bat we do not want his opinion. What the public wanted to know is how Stokes came by his death. Now it is clear ; and if Dr Michaux does not vary bis astounding tale it only remains for to put Captain Lothaire upon bis trial for the deliberate murder of an Englishman. On his way up to Lake Albert Captain Lothaire issued to a Lieutenant Henri a warrant for the arrest of Stokes, and this having been executed, Stokes was sent down the line to Lothaire's camp under escort. There he was treated as a prisoner, and the following morning brought up before Lothaire. This man sat as sole judge, baviog the assistance of nobody to form a court-martial, while Dr Micbaux acted merely aa interpreter. Some "witnesseß," probably slave-raiding Arabs, who had had in their possession Snider and Mauser rifles, and bad possibly got 1 them frotu Stokes'a plundered caravan, stated they had purchased them from Stokes. This was enough. Lothaire, I who had " alone tried him and judged him,' 1 now " sentenced him" to death. Dr Michaux interceded in vain, both previous to and after a request from Stokes. He suggested that the Englishman should be sent dowa to Boma, the capital of the of the Congo State, as the Code provides. He asked for a few days' reprieve. He desired4o consult the Code, and found Lothaire bad no copy, and was a law unto himself. Night came on and they slept. Stokes, before five in tbe morning, was led out to execution ere the doctor woke, Lotbaire being apparently both judge and executioner and sexton, for the body of Stokes already lay in the grave made for bins at the foot of the gallows. Lotnaire admitted that Stokes was sleeping when be was sent for to be executed. A short shrift indeed (