THE CONGO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 7 December 1907, Page 5

THE CONGO.

. THE POSITION OF AFFAIRS. PROGRESSIVE POLICY OUTLINED. Received Dee. 6, 10.14 p.m. Brussels, DeeemU-r 6. Belgian delegates report that the private capital invested in the Congo j State is £0,800,000. The general trade •mounts to four and a-half millions per annum. The colony's assets are t'4.800,000, and liabilities four ami a-half millions. The Belgian authorities after the annexation will control the Crown Domain, and make fre*h assignments out of revenue for the erection of hospitals, churches, and schools. The properties of the domain are valued at one million pounds. These ■will be placed at the disposal of the colony. The State has also the option of purchasing the domain forests.

Dealing with the Congo annexation movement, and the efforts of King Leopold to retain-under the new regime the real control of the Congo. M. Georges Loillld, leader of the Progressive Wing Of the liberal party in the Belgian Parliament, lately wrote:—''The King is there to see that reforms shall not be ladical. He will remain the master afterwards, as before. It is this that the English do not appear to understand, because I do not doubt the sincerity of their goodwill towards us, but I think their policy wholly contrary to the object they are pursuing. If (liev Compel ns to annex—for that is what it cornea to —a conflict between England and Belgium is inevitable, because those reforms will not be effected. Not betßtne the Belgians will put ill-will or .Wickedness into the balance—thev would be only too pleased to see the "natives happy—but they are not aetivelv inter ! *»ted in the affairs of the Congo. Thoy are, on he conrary, profoundly indifferent, and when they know how many millions reforms will cost they will ob|e<(t. He only Belgians who are interested in the Congo are the King and Ma financial bodyguard—solely interested in nuking money. No one in Parliament even has a mandate from his constituents to interest himself in the pativM, as so many philanthropists do in Eagland."