The Minneapolis journal., 1903-11-07

disguise. But, again, the English
note objects, 'The same methods are
employed to obtain native soldiers as
We're formerly employed to obtain
slaves, and force is as necessary to
bring the natives to the places Wnere
they are to serve as formerly was
necessary to lead the captive slaves
If the previous allegation was untrue,
this one is both untrue and ridiculous.
So far from its having any foundation
in fact, the blacks contend eagerly for
admission to service in the army. OF
the 1918 men on the strength of the
army, 5, ,27S are volunteers, and the
whole army could be raised from vol
unteers if it was thought well to do
So, Those who are impressed into the
service are selected by the head men
Of their villages. They number about
|2,200 men each year out of a popula-
ton of twenty million Inhabitants. To
Iliken the enrolment of this infinitesi-
NAL proportion of the population in
the army to an Arab slave raid, is to
prostitute language.
Here i may well pause. ] have GER
tainly told enough to prove that suc-
cess not failure, has attended King
lLeopold's IS work as a pioneer of civiliza-
| ton. Still there is much that I have
left untold, of the railways the steam
| boat services, the motor services, the
dens, the model farms, the forest serv
/ ice, the workshops the schools, the
hospitals, the orphanages, the trades,
| the commerce!
Atrocities Admitted.
| OF the atrocities committed in the
Congo I need not speak. The gov
ernment is sternly stamping out can
nibalism and all it's allied cruelties
and excesses. Crimes committed by
| ne uyIoo inf f1a crnv rror ANT
service, or not, it has no less sternly
/ punished. There have been crimes
in the Congo Free State, as there are
crimes in Europe, and those who com
mitted them found the African jungle
1 did not cover their misdeeds from jus
tice. Such crimes as Europeans COM
mitted, however, bore nothing either
in their extent, their baseness, or the
! lposition of the criminals to justify
their being dragged before the tri-
bunal of the world. It is greed, not
4 charity, that has given rise to the cam
paign against King Leopold's admins
i istration. The powers assembled at
u the congress Of Berlin prescribed that
4 commerce should be free in the Congo
basin. Commerce remains free, but
5 King Leopold by the exercise of pow
; ers which no sane man can deny are
;, his, has annexed all unoccupied. land
> in the Free State to, the crown, and
, has taken for himself, which means for
: Belgium, or his nominees, the right,
Z which also Is his undeniably, of coll
l lecting rubber in the private demesne.
/ The. collection Of rubber cannot come
l under the head of commerce. If only
= the plenipotentiaries Of the powers at
$ Berlin had remembered it, they would
$ undoubtedly have tried to make some
$ regulation by which the .adventurers
s Of their respective countries would
r have a share in the profits got from,
IL of IL ,se,4x 5fo1o1 o1o
e article; but they did not remember
it; a thing they cannot be very much
blamed for, since rubber had not been
:, discovered in the Congo when their
. congress sat- Therefore, they must
= abide by the present state of things,
E and it is to be hoped they will do So,
:, ;, and not seek to disturb the constitu-
T. l. ton Of the state by raising false is
\ \ sues on fabricated atrocities. King
- Leopold's was the inception of the
- state; he bore the brunt and the bur-
: den of it's formation. Surely it is
- - fitting he should reap whatever gain
- it has to yield, doubly fitting since he
- reaps for no private harvest of his
- - own, but for the brave Belgians whose
= kin were his pioneers in the Free
= State.
:, Leopold to His People.
= Leopold's Congo rule is one of sue
i, cess, not failure; of benefcence, not
n uSlCS. IAilOWlllS Lie UGSC IHOllf0S
( Of his assailants, he can despise their
ir assaults. His justification is found III
" the words he has himself addressed to
le his people: This campaign will moi
n Danish those twenty years of devotion,
+ of sacrifice, sometimes of heroisnl dur
le ing which the Belgians have worked
Is and suffered in Africa. They were Bel
J. gians, those men who marked with
r their bones that ancient caravan route
,r which has become to-day a railroad;
y they were fBelgians, those men who
Of fought, in the heart of Africa, the
re slave trade and the man-hunters; they
s. were Belgians, those men who fol
m years past have given their lives te
spread civilization and commerce il
r. the Congo. Let it not be forgotten
a that their martyrology is counted by
ID hundreds of victims, and that it is o1
e. their own blood that they were no.
st sparing, those who are now represent,
a. ed as the torturers and assassins of the
's blacks!''