THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1908. HOW THE CONGO PROBLEM STANDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3033, 2 November 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1908. HOW THE CONGO PROBLEM STANDS.

The Congo State is to be added to Belgium—that is the upshot of the Bill in the Chamber in Brussels on August 20th. The Treaty of Annexation and the Colonial Law were voted by majorities of 29 and 42. For four months these had been debated. It is true the final scene of King Leopold's sinister administration has not yet been rung off; for," says the London "Times," "the Senate has yet to pass its verdict on the measures voted by the Chamber; and, by the thirty-fourth article of the Berlin Act of 1885, the Powers signatory Lo that international charter have to be notified of Belgium's assumption of sovereignty, in case they may have any objection to raise. The first of these steps, the consent of the Senate, seems to be regarded as a matter of course. Since, as a result of the European outcry against the iniquities of the present administration, amply confirmed in 1906 by a Belgian commission of inquiry, Belgium began seriously to contemplate taking over the colony, the conditions under

which it was offered to her have been sensibly modified in her favour. The terms at first suggested by the Sovereign, besides being pecuniarily onerous, left her so little real control over the administration that the intention was obviously to induce her to cover the acts of others with her own fair fame. The Sovereign was then compelled to lower his terms, and though his solatium is still substantial, the main point of constitutional control by Parliament over the budget and administrative acts of the Colonial Government is amply guaranteed by the law as it has passed the Chamber. This alone is the best safeguard against a continuation of the evils which have been so frequently and thoroughly exposed during the last ten years; for no Government subject to the power of inquiry an j the judgment of a civilised people would dare to maintain them." Mr E. D. Morel, who has had so much to do with this victory, says in the "Chronicle" (London) that a piratical enterprise calling itself a State, which has polluted the earth with its abominations, has been destroyed. Mr Morel considers that its disappearance, which was imperative , for Africa and the world, has been brought about by the combined forces of British and American public opinion. It is the triumph of an aroused public conscience over a brutal despotism backed by great vested interests, and the world is the richer for that triumph. It remains tor British and American opinion to insist that this change shall mean, if British and American recognition of the transfer is to be granted, a fundamental alteration in the whole conception under which the Congo has been governed since 1892. In this respect no guarantees whatsoever have been given, and the last public act of the Belgian Government in relation to this country has been that of attempting to dispute the obligation which lies upon Belgium under Article 34 of the Berlin Act to obtain the recognition of the Powers to her acquisition of the Congo territory. This proceeding, together with the action of the Chamber in repudiating liability on the part of Belgium for the payment of interest op Congo loans, does not in itself inspire confidence, but the crux of the situation is, of course, the treatment of the native population. "Here," says Mr Morel, "not only have we no guarantees, but we nave the most categorical assertions both verbal and documentary, that the governing party in Belgium intends so long as it holds the reins of power to perpetuate the present system ir. its essentials. Belgium has been made to annex the Congo, binding herself to maintain the Congo State's agreements with the concessionaires. Her governing statesmen have accentuated over and again the principle which animated the colonising enterprises of the Middle Ages, and which has been followed with such devastating effects on the Congo—viz., that the wealth of over-sea possessions is the property not of their inhabitants, but of the metropolis."