THE CONGO FREE STATE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1978, 14 January 1907, Page 1

THE CONGO FREE STATE.

• AN APPALLING INDICTMENT. “lied It libber’'I—the 1 —the story ol : Belgian atrocities committed in tlio Congo ill tlio name mid in tlio solo interests of King Leopold, and now published in cheap form (says tlio Daily Mail) —is tlio most appalling indictment of personal rapacity, cruelty, expropriation of life and labour, maladministration, and tyrannical atrocity over recorded on irrefutable proof against any ono man in tho any country or in any ago. Contention as to facts lias disappeared. The truth, in all its international dangers—the horror of it all —stands forth naked. Mr. Morel asks: Will tho British public, will tho Government, compel the cessation of this unspoakablo crime? By secret decree, dated September 21, 181)1, tlio whole outlook of affairs in the Congo was changed, and tho Congo passed into tho hands of King Leopold. This decree laid down as the “paramount duty of the officials of the Congo Eroe State —the “ra'ising of rovonue’ —to secure for tho State the domainal fruits or produce of tho country ,which arc ivory and rubber. In this way he appropriated I Central Africa.” I Now, as to policy. In a secret dociunout, Juno 20, jo'J2, King Leopold established tho bonus system on rubber and ivory prouuco. By an ingenious contrivance of brigandage this system enjoined that the less money tho official employed by King Leopold cost his royal master the greater would ho the’King’s plensuro and the official’s reward. Tho less tho nativo got for his ivory and rubber the largor would he ijm official’s commission. Thus the ivory and rubber regimes were established! And what were tlio methods? The official’s future boing hound up with the production of revenue, organised expropriation of tho native beenmo the solo principle of government. A number of secret circulars wore issued which Mr Morel publishes. Carte blanche was given to all officials. In ono of these circulars issued by tho King’s “mandatory” in Africa, the officials are ordered, “when tho natives refuse obstinately to work, you will compel them to obey by taking hostages.” Work signifying the gathering of rubber for King Leopold, the system of taking women hostages became, from the date of that circular, a recognised feature of the rubber slave trade. It is the story of outrage, death, and expropriation. Slave-hunting raids rendered every village a smoking plain. 'There is the testimony of Mr G. T. Glavo “Tho soldiers steal everything on the plantations and in the houses. If the owners object they are beaten, tho women taken by force. In stations in charge one seos strings of poor, emaciated old women, some of them more skeletons, working from 10 to six, tramping about in gangs with a rope round their necks. They are prisoners of war. Expeditions go in every direction to force tile natives to mako rubber—thousands have been killod.”

BASKETS OF HUMAN HEADS. Mr Campbell describes tlie method? of tlio “Ivory Regime!”—= “The crowds were fired into promiscuously, and fifteen were killed, including women and a babe on hoi mother’s breast. The heads wore cut off and brought to the officer in charge, who then split men to cut off the hands too, and these were strung and dried over tlio camp lire. The chicottc, or rhinoeoros hido whip, was freely used on all prisoners. I shall never forget the sickening sight of deep baskets of human heads.’’ Some of the data are almost unreproduceablc in a newspaper. Mr Clark testifies to tlio number of hands of women and children ho has counted, to girls he has seen dying in the bush with their rigli^hands cut off, to old women being flogged, to tlio sickening barbarity of the “collier national,” or chain gang. Tlio native, Consul Casement writes, is without hope. The entire region is depopulated. Mutilations of men are common, the most diabolic forms of vice practised upon chiefs to humble and terrify them, punishment by proxy, the detention and maltreatment of the women hostages to coerce the men is part of the recognised system. Mr Harvey records “demon-like acts of atrocity.” Mr Kirby reports that cannibal soldiers are employed to terrorise the people. When a chief fails to produce the stipulated number of rubber baskets, expeditions to murder, mutilate, or outrage the village population are despatched, and the hands brought back to the factory. The whole system is one of organised slavery. Whole colonies of women exist as hostages; numbers of soldiers are sent “to look after them.” In Mr box Bourne’s report, sent to the Foreign Office, Mr Campbell writes: — “Every feature of indigenous life which made for self-respect has been dragged in the mud of grinding tyranny and foul imaginings; indigenous laws for the localisation of disease rendered of no avail through the wholesale deportation of women and the constant moving n'ljout of masses of soldiery. Public incest, is a pastime to the brutal soldiery.” KINO LEOPOLD RESPONSIBLE.

And, as Mr Morel points oot, the ontire responsibility of those atrocious scandals lies solely with the King, who is solely authoritative. As Professor Cattier says: “It is an organised and systematic protection of injustice.” Thorp is one will—the will of a megalomaniac—xyliioli controls, rules, dominates every wheel and rivet of thp machine; drunk with absolutism, impervious to every feeling of humanity, raking in mlilions from the anguish of his miserable African slaves. What is the Congo enterprise? Tlio Congo Free State is the property of King Leopold, covering nearly one million square miles, and inhabited by nearly 20 million human beings. There are no estimates, of revenues. Professor Cattier estimates tlic net profits derived from the Domainc privee to be £2,854,000 in tho last decade ,or nearly £-300,000 per annum. Those revenues are used, inter alia, to create a press bureau, for the purpose of widespread bribery, tiie construction of a public arch in Brussels. colossal improvements to the royal residence at Laekuii, Ciilopiiil schools, and the purchase of real estate in Belgium. In 15 years tho King’s “philanthropic enterprise” has produced a net profit of £5,000,000, which are tlio proceeds of the rubbo • slavo trade of the Congo, raised I y systomatic oppression, misery, and partial extermination of the natives oi Central Africa. Mr. Morel shows that Belgium Jias no “legal rights" whatever over tho King’s enterprise, which is a “foreign State” outside tile g.intuo] or supervision of the Belgian Parliament and people. , The King drafts all “budgets” and registers of laws. He is supreme. The populace of the Congo is credibly estimated to be decreasing at the rate of 100,000 per annum. Mr. Morel asks England to consider the matter —to consider whether she lias not the moral right to send a gunboat to the mouth of tho Congo and put an end which she could do without much trouble — to this regime of' abomination, which is a blot on humanity and all civilisation.

I CHANNEL TUNNEL. Tho bill to ho submitted in tho next session of the Imperial Parlia- ■ inent by tho Channel Tunnel Comi pany seeks power for tho construc- ' tion of a sub-marine railway, which, at Dover, is to he connected witli tho systems of the South-Eastern and Chatham Companies, and, on the French side of the Channel with tho I Northern of Franco and other lines. I It is provided that tho works may lie executed in conjunction with any Government or other authority. Tho tunnels will he lighted and worked by electricity, and laud is to ho acquired near the Kent shore for . tlio erection .of a generating station,' space being likewise reserved in tlio same neighbourhood for tlio deposit of the excavated chalk. Power is taken to extend tlio existing shafts and borings, and to afford protection to the tunnels. The creation is contemplated of a new I company, ' vested .with authority to raise the necessary share capital, to which the South-Eastern and Chatham Bailway Companies are to he entitled to contribute. Provision is also made for the duo observance of all conventions, agreements, or arrangements concluded between xiis Majesty’s Government and the Government of France. Plans and sections of the works are ready for deposit, and copies of tlio intended | Act wore to ho at tho Private Bill Office in London this month. , Tho plans are not only of the greatest importance to Dover, hut they embrace several now features which, tho promoters anticipate, will make a great difference in the public attitude towards the scheme. The present bill contains precautionary stipulations, so as tp,::ensure- either the complete blocking or destruction of the tunnel at the will of the mill-' ■ tary authorities at Dover.

The now company is to raise sufl cieut capital to carry out the En' lish half of the tunnel, the other hal being left entirely to French cntei 1 prise, so that the cost of the tunnc will ho equally divided betwee: French and British investors—an ai rangemont which is regarded as tli best- means of making tho tunne [ neutral ground and of ensuring cqua international interests in the grea undertaking. The French ask fo nothing beyond ordinary precautions They simply propose to make the bos approach possible to the tunnel oi their side of tho Channel, and an ready to do anything in their powci to remove the fears which to some ex tent still exist on this side of tin Channel. .. It is understood that tho South Eastern and Chatham Bailway Company will he prepared before" Parliamentary Committees to give a guarantee that tlio efficiency of the existing cross-Channel steamboat services shall bo fully maintained, both from Dover and Folkestone, notwithstanding tho existence of a Channel tunnel, tho directors of the company being fully convinced that tlio tunnel will attract an entirely new volume of traffic. . A vigorous battle between experts is now proceeding, some holding that mines with long-distanco means of explosion and other precautionary measures will bo an adequate safeguard, while others support the findings of the 1882, 18S3 War Offico Committees that no such measures can guarantee safety from the warlike use of the tunnel. Lord Wolselcy is understood to maintain his opposition to tlio scheme.