CONGO HORRORS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12634, 23 October 1905, Page 7

CONGO HORRORS.

MARK TWAIN AS A CHAMPION OF

HUMANITY.

MR. ROOSEVELT'S CHANCE

(" London Daily Chronicle.")

A rumour having got abroad that " Mark 'Twain" (Mr S Clemens) has ient his powerful pen to the task of atrousdng the world's conscience to the horrors of King Leopold's rule in Africa on the Congo,'a " Daily Chronicle " reporter sought out Mr Morel with a view to getting the report confirmed or denied.

" Yes, it is quite true," said Mr Morel. "Mr Clemens has written an essay of ten thousand words on the subject, entitled ' King Leopold's Soliloquy.'" " Have you seen the manuscript?"— " I have it."

" What has aroused Mark Twain's interest in the subject?" " When I went to the tSates last October to present a memorial' to President Roosevelt about the Congo, and to speak on it as a British delegate to the International Peace Congress, I had letters of introduction from friends to a •number of people, amongst them to Mr Clemens. He invited me to din-

ner, and we had several hours' talk. 1 ihad sent him, shortly before I left England, some published matter in connection with the Congo. Ho seemed great■ly moved, and promised me lie would do something to help to arouse the American public. He has had the great generosity to write the essay and to ihand it over without conditions to the

cause of Congo reform. Mr Clemens's publishers (Harper Brothers) also merit our thanks for raising no 'objection to the arangement." " I suppose it .is a scathing production? " " Yes; wry powerful—'and in Mr Olemeois's inimitable style." " Can you give me any idea of the line it takes?" " Well, I think it would be hardly fair to do that, but I am very glad to note two things. Mr Clemens drives (home nsponeibiUty with relentless force to King Leopold himself, and he puts in bold relief the moral responsibility of America in the matter." WILL AMERICA INTERVENE? " Why of America? " " The United States was the first

Power to recognise the flag of the ' In <ternaftonal Association' (afterwards the Congo Free State) as that of a friendly Government. They did this before the Berlin Conference took place, which gave an enormous impetus to King Leopold's claims, and contributed power- - fully to the recognition subsequently given to his undertaking by the European Powers. It was precisely that historical ibasis which justified our appeal to the President of the United States." " And did the President 'hold out any ihopes of American intervention ? " " I am not ait liberty to disclose the nature of the conversation I had the privilege of having with President Roosevelt. I can only say that I left hm with a strong feeling of hope." " Do you think that the President could intervene effectively? " " Well, I do not believe there is another main in the whole world who could contribute so effectively to a solution of this horrible business. His moral force (has always been great. It is now overwhelming. America could not by any possibility be accused of interested motives. Her material interests in the Oongo are confined to her missions. Our own interests in the Congo are, of course, very small also. But there is always a latent suspicion of British motives on the Continent. " The Continent has never understood the humanitarian side of the British character—although even Bismarck acknowledged it was a force to be reckoned with by Continental statemen. " And then, of course, you must remember that in every European country King Leopold's secret press bureau ds actively at work propagating the •most infamous falsehoods, and poisoning men's minds with regard to the Br>it-, ;

i ish movement. i ..■■■r v \ * c ," By what means do you' consider the >' Congo evil can be allayedl— What are '' your precise aims in the matter?" " What I want to bring about is an International Conference, or a reference to .the Hague • Tribunal of the root causes to which, the oppression of the Congo peoples and ffie perpetually recurrent atrocities are attributable. Personally I regard, an have always • regarded, the. Congolese system as threatening the whole edifice of European of- • * fort in Africa", as a world danger, and as "a world disgrace.' C " The Congo native has been made an alien in his own land. Ownership of the produce in the soil has become vested in a European monarch, and the native who alone can collect that produce —never forget this —as driven at the

point of the bayonet to bring it in. It is an absolute, complete, and entire revolution in the relationship between "-"white and bkc kin tropical Africa—the black man's country. The native cannot sell the produce of his land .which the European requires, because it does not belong to ihim a priori, but to the, European There is consequently no comfnerce. The native is not looked upon as a trading animal, -but as a beast of burden. Similarly, to keep up the enormous army required for the maintenance of such a system, the foodstuffs raised 'by the people are claimed as also belonging to 'the State.' The so-called 'taxation' in foodstuffs alone is killing off thousands of people every year." " Then it iis really nothing less than slavery?" " What do you mean by 'slavery'? The coercion of the natives? This is fax worse tlhan slavery. It is the revival under worse forma of the' slave trade, purely and simply. People .-just now are talking about the raiding for slaves in the Eastern portions of the Congo State to furnish the San Thome plantations with labour. Mr NeVinson has been doing admirable work in this | regard. j " But black as is this evil, it is as nothing compared with the permanent and authorised state of affairs prevailing throughout the Congo Basin, where the Congo Government, so-called, has established its supremacy. " And do not forget that this atrocious business has been going on for years, that tihe facts are known in every Foreign Office in Europe, and that nothing effective is being done to stop it. Some people talk about exaggeration ! The charge is ludicrous. " And there is another point which is often lost sight of. Mr Casement's observations, the experiences of Mr Harris, Mr Weeks, Scrivener, and other of that •band of self-sacrificing men who have risked practically everything in their determination not to bottle up the truth, all these have been confined to regions where the Congo Government is, so to speak, solidly established. They have been confined to regions closely adjacent to the Upper Congq River— the main 'highway of civilisation '—and their very presence —the presence of the missionaries—in those regions has been calculated to restrict the barbarities inevitable to the Congolese system. " Yet there is Mr Harris, with evidence of a thousand specific murders alone N with in a radius of probably not more '-': than fifty miles (and probably less) of his own station; her© is Mr Scrivener, who, in a journey covering not more than 250 miles from his particular station, untls that whole peoples have been absolutely extirpated. Imagine, then, what goes on in regions further afield, where there are no prowling Consuls or inquisitive missionaries to report! " Even in the abridged form in which a timorous Italian Foreign Office has allowed it to appear, the report of Dr Bacc&ri, the King of Italy's envoy to

the Congo, describes the extermination of the population over vast areas, areas where no British missionary has ever set foot. The people are, he says, "getting scarcer and scarcer every year." Even, as published, his report is horrifying—horrifying even in its reticences. The plain fact of the matter is that the population of the Congo basin is being steadily wiped off the face of the earth, while the world looks on with folded arms."

" And do you suggest that these things are known to the Belgian people, and deliberately connived at by them?" " I suggest nothing of the kind. I maintain the exact contrary. The truth has been, and is being, kept from the Belgian people by a conspiracy of silence to which I think history affords no parallel. The Belgian Press is grafting upon its shoulders a burden of terrible responsibility and of everlasting 6hamo. If you saw some of the letters which I get from Belgians you would be astounded at the amazing ignorance which prevails in Belgium on this subject.

" The secret of it is not far to seek. The Congo is not a national undertaking, but a private enterprise, caoried out with international elements, for the benefitj not of a nation, but of a handful of individuals."

" But who gets the rubber and ivory which come from the Congo forests?"

" That ds an easy question to answer. The Congo State is divided into three distinct and main portions: The Domaine de la Couronne, the Domaine Prive, and the areas farmed out to socalled '(societies.' The rubber and ivory from the first portion go to the King, and to the King only. The sums derived therefrom are managed by three persons appointed by the King.

" The official defenders of the King say that he spends them in beautifying Belgium in the nation's interest. The enemies of the King say something else. The sums derived from the rubber and ivory from the Domain© Prive are supposed to be paid into the treasury of the 'Congo Government.' No proof, however, of the contention is adduced, for the simple reason that only budgetary estimates are ever published, never budgetary realisations. The sums derived from the rubber and ivory obtained by the 'societies' from their respective ' noncessions' go to the shareholders, and the largest, shareholder is ' the State.'

" The society in whose domain Ma* Harris is situate has anado a net profit of over £600,000 in five years1, and its shares of an original value of £20, have been quoted as high as £1,240 per share. The most important original shareholders of these societies, after the iState, belong to the group of financiers, court flunkeys, members of the 'haute bonrgeoise," and co on, who constitute tho King's bodyguard.

" You -will see from what I have said that the Belgian nation, as a nation, gets little or no profit train the Congo undertaking of its sovereign. This Congo business is, indeed, unique m the world's history, il have described it as a huge piratical expedition, and that is what it really it."