THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1910. THE CONGO QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10002, 24 March 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1910. THE CONGO QUESTION.

Sir Edward Grey's statement in the House of Commons that Great Britain is watching for the promised reforms in the Congo Free State with 'benevolent expectancy" is a fairly sonnd indication that a giave danger which not so very long ago seriously threatened the world's peace is slowly passing away. The Foreign Secretary himself on several occasions drew attention to the danger created by the stiff-necked policy of Belgium—a policy which induced the British Government, and also the United States Government, to withhold recognition of the annexation of the Free State by Belgium, until some-, thing like a reasonable assurance was forthcoming that the rights of the natives in Belgian Congoland would be respected, and that the era of merciless exploitation would be closed. The conciliatory speeches of M. Renkin, the Belgian Minister tor

the Colonies, and his promise that re forms would be introduced relieving the natives from compulsory rubbergathering and permitting them to trade freely in the products of the country, have been answered by the changed attitude of the British Government, which was by no means one of "benevolent expectancy" before M. Renkin returned from a visit to the Congo Free State, fully convinced that the regime of compulsory rubber-gathering needed amendment. The guarantees which Sir Edward Grey and Mr Flihu Root demanded from the Belgian Government as a condition precedent to recognition of the annexation have not yet been given, but the tone of the British Foreign Secretary's remarks seems to indicate that recognition will not be much longer denied. The definite disappearance of the Congo question from the list of issues that exist as chronic menaces to the peace of the world will be very welcome. The Egyptian question —the question that is to say of | Great Britain's Tight to remain in occupation of Egypt—has virtually i been conceded by the Powers, though it is now raised in another form by the Egyptian Nationalists. The Morocco question, which caused such a turmoil five years ago, has practically disappeared, and when complete international recongition of the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State, has been accorded this third great danger may be expected to vanish likewise.' Sir Harry Johnston shows in a brilliant article in i the "Quarterly Review" that wherever large areas of territory inhabited by uncivilised natives are handed over to coucessionar'es or chartered companies the temptation to impose compulsory labour on the natives is tolerably sure to appear. Viewed in that light, the regime in vogue in"the Congo Free State under the auspices of King Leopold was only an extreme form of an evil that has cropped up in different shapes in the colonial possessions of other nations. The new spirit of reform which has been manifested by the Belgian Government is not only liktely to definitely remove in tha near future a grave international danger, but also to materially improve the condition of several millions of natives in the heart of Darkest Africa.