New-York tribune., 1903-05-17

Not "Free' Country 4ny Longer,
Says Missionary.
RUBBER MONOPOLISTS BLAMED.

The Congo Free State is no longer the Tree state
contemplated in the Berlin and Brussels conven-
tions of 1885 and 1892. according to the Rev W W.
Morrison a missionary of the American PreSoy-
terian Church. who returned here yesterday on
furlough. He has just spent six and a half years
Luebo, town of ten thousand inhabitants, on
a branch of the Congo River. 200 miles from the
West Coast. On the way here he stopped in Lon
don and visited Belgium present evidence of the
Of slavery. which. he said. is permitted in the
Congo Free State for the benefit of the rubber
monopolists, among whom are included King Leo
pold of Belgium This forced labor, he declared. Is
permitted by the government of the Congo. in spite
of the prohibitions contained in the conventions
In I.uebo he said. it possible to buy slaves
women being sold for ten pieces of cotton ducklfs
worth in England about So Men, he said, were not
so easily obtained, for they were enslaved by the
government to collect rubber. If, for any reason
these slaves or forced laborers. do not do as they
are bid. they punished by hundred or more
strokes from hippo whip To supply the TABOR
the natives are seized by slave raiders. Mr. Morrl-
son had with him Kachunga. native of the Congo
Free State twenty-one years old. whom he had
brought to this country to assist him in the prep
araton of dictionary and a grammar OF the IAN
guage used in that part of Africa. Thls nauVe
negro he said. was taken captive when only eight
or ten years old For Il number Of years he was
obliged to work for the government.
The whole native population. Mr. Morrison
said lis absolutely cowed. Last July or August a
State officer came my place and sent his soldiers
Three or four weeks later another officer came and
took away eighteen others and tied them by the
neck to each other. | made a complaint to the
State Government and sent copy of the com
plaint to the English consul who is also the United
States Consul. This complaint sent to Wash
nSton. and from there to the United States Min
lister at Brussels. Both the English and the United
States ministers at Brussels told me that it was
the most convincing statement of the trouble they
had ever seen
Mr. Morrison. through the Aborigines Protective
Society of London sent to Lord Lansdowne state
pent of the conditions in the Congo Free State. and
the subject was to be brought in Parliament on
Nav 90 by Mr.. SamuelS. Sir CharleS LlIRe- MT
Morrison said, would help the movement 10 remedy
the conditions then. The Chambers OF commerce
of I liverpool. Manchester and London were inter
es+ed in the movement, he said, because British
traders were being driven out of the congo dlstrlc'
nv the action Of the State government. The actlon
OF Mr. Morrison in England drew the 1re o. the
Consul General of the Free state at LONDON III
Nfs statement Mr.. Morrison asserted: .
Concessions or grants of land however s[ndI can
o longer be obtained from the State by other than
Tho favored individual or corporations Ehe state
ie dividing up the country among concesSloialres
r,,+b aVnif1siTe rights of trade There is now very
little free land not given out to companies 10 eA-
'i agitn,ate trade except the small region from
1aano1a 10 Stanley Pool is practically smut out
H@nt nr1y are concessions refused to traders. but
tbev are also refused to missionaries -, ,-..o,
Mr. Morrison will endeavor to interest," the !
States Government in the troubles or the hdtlHes
of the Free State. this government ne says, plnS
ona of the signatories of the Berlin Convention
He will go to Washington in few DAYS 10 present
Tho subject to the State Department lie Is staying
With DT w D Snyder at No. 2S4 Maple-st, Flat-
bush DR. snyder missionary at Luepo Tor