LIFE ON THE CONGO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 18 June 1907, Page 4

LIFE ON THE CONGO.

"A NIGHTMARE OF BRUTAL DE3P'/riSi? AXL> CRUELTY.-• Tiie Pi'-v. OwrVs I'adfield. of tin- COll5O Paloio ilis&ion. who lias just rchniv\l from the Upper Congo, lu-: nnuie the follonr.ng inteßsting stat;ii:cr.t to a pr-iss representative:— "I have boon three and a half years cn the Congo, mamly in what are known as tho Ab'r and Lnlaneu t-en-iwries, which were visited vx--, yoai-3 ngc by the Congo Con.mission of Hnqmry. "Ordinary eomm reial are an known, otid the native 's'jnti'y,' or regutar soldier of the "Force I'nbtiqne,' takes the place of tho trader in uv-ri favor.d jiorl.s of Africa. Sorno of my coileaeuva foarid villages living under the shadow of the Vntry' rifle. Their rep'.-ife were forwaMed, I brieve, to tiis Foreign Office. Owing to vr;r].,a'; causes 1 lia.ve U:-: n. unable to travel to any e>:tx-nt lately: but heavy fighting in i!>e Uppm- Ix.-fori and Upper-Maringa K< Ixwu adnittclly taking place for s"v- r : ,l months im: t. "I do not like tc think of wiiat is coing on there. Just Ivefor.- I left a w!»-jlc crtrj uf rumois reached Baringa. Of coursj I am not iii a position to guarantee their r.c curacy, but finrn what wo have i«»n ou;--sclres it Baringa before the rdvent of the Commission, there i-, but too mvcli 10.130:1 10 be'iie-ra in (!i<sir substantial tpjth Fighting and wiw.acio, prisoners shot, nii.-eiy and outrage—that is the by.rdeD if t li.r- story. "Wlien theer robbory is Hm l-nsis of everything, whnt can" tl;e outhok be? "Atr(ir-.iiei' art) only one outlook of th? ijßcstion.

'On my rbtnin home I n&ie a point of visiting Duflla, in Mie Gormor. Cainorconv, and \ew CahW. in the- Niger Pi-(it«.tf,T- , ate, to see for myoelf how tho administration works ir thr;se, colonies, and more than did I realise, aa I saw an.l noted the eatr.i-'rdinary .and ] rcfound difteirenocG the principle of mle in those pki<¥ thst evorything on the Congo is a nigUmar* of brutal d -spotism .uid ernolty."