Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-05
DISCUSSED THE CONGO
CONFERENCE HELD AT GEORGE
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY.
Memorial Asking Investigation Now
Before Congress-Another Ses-
sion This Evening.

A conference TO consider the conditions ex-
listing in the Congo Free State was held In
one Of the halls of George Washington Uni
versity late Saturday afternoon, and was
attended by some of the most prominent
statesmen and diplomats in the city. A me-
mortal asking that Congress favor an In
quiry into conditions in the Congo country
by the powers responsible for its creation,
and by the United States, If the way be
clear, was introduced into the Senate last
April by Senator Morgan. Action upon this
petition is to be had at this session of Con-
gress and at the meeting Saturday state
ments were made explanatory of the evil
dence to which the memorial appeals. OPP
portunty was afforded for questioning and
conference regarding all aspects of the case
and for asccrtaining the truth of the situa-
ton. After short session., the meeting ad-
journed to convene this evening at the same
place.
Commissioner Henry B. F. mcfarland
presided temporarily but as he would be
unable to attend all the meetings, DR..
George l.. Raymond was made permanent
chairman. DR.. Raymond introduced DR..
Thomas S. Barbour, foreign secretary of
the American Missionary Baptist Union.
who made a brief statement of how the
government of the Congo Free States was
organized wherein the stipulations of the
Berlin and the Brussels conferences have
been violated, the witnesses of this. the
grounds for action by the United States and
how such action should be taken.
DIR. Barbour said that the witnesses to
the maladministration of affairs in the Con-
go are American and English missionaries,
travellers, explorers, consular officers and
former employees of the Congo government,
while the counter testmony is entirely from
interested parties.
DR.. Barbour's Charges.
1.-THE missionary societies which have
presented this memorial to Congress" said
DR.. Barbour, appear in the case rather as
witnesses than as prosecutors. They i'm
peach, not the people Of Belgium, but the
Belgians' king. They do not ask for con-
gressional prejudgment of the merits of the
but for a calm and judicial
of the evidence in support of
the catalogue of inhuman wrongs the hap
less people of the Congo have been made to
suffer.
1.-The avowed policy of the king, who
reigns as absolute despot in the Congo, is
that of taxation by enforced labor. Leopold
declares that the obligation of people to
pay taxes is universally admitted and that
when money is not in their possession taxes
must be paid in labor. The resulting ne
cessity is coercion when that labor tax is
DR.. Barbour declared that whatever do
minion King Leopold exercised Is derived
and that like conferences of the powers at
interest could supervise his conduct of the
trust reDoSed.
AS matters now stand King Leopold
claims ownership of vast territories, both
as to the land and its products, and ac-
no right of interference on the
part of any nation or nations
Dr. Barbour insisted this nation must
bear large share of responsibility for the
existence of the Congo Free State and that
II owes 1t to itself and to the ideals for
which 1t stands to protect the Free State
from oppression, cruelty and wrong.
Or. Barbour was followed by Mr.. w. NJ.
MORRISON, Presbyterian missionary to the
congo, who has just returned from
'even-year sojourn in that country. These
years he spent at Luebo, a missionary sta
non Loo miles in the interior of the Congo
state, and near one of the. tributaries of
the Congo river. He said in beginning that
he spoke for 25,OO0OO0 black people who
live in that country and who cannot speak
for themselves.
Commercial Greed.
They live under an absolute despotism,"
he said, I'm almost absolute slavery. They
ire the victims If commercial greed. by
Which the Golfers Of King Leopold are
welled with tribute"
Mr.. Morrison told how the International
African Association sought recognition as
IN international power under the joint SUI
20 'Acioh VI Tic poWeTS, ana Oh the TACT
hat the United States was the first coun-
ny to so recognize 1t. Six months after
he Berlin conference, he said, the associa-
Ion changed its title to the Congo Free
state. 1t was stipulated at Berlin, he con-
-lnued, that three things should be done
oy the government Of the Congo: First,
hat absolute free trade should be main
tanned; second, that the country should be
opened to missionary enterprises of all
creeds and nations, and, last, that slavery
should be stopped, and everything possible
should be done to better the condition of
the natives.
Mr.. Morrison divided his subject into
these three heads and proceeded to show
now each of the three stipulations has
been. and Is, violated. The government of
The Congo. he said, is an absolute despot-
ISM with King Leopold as absolute mon
arch. He spoke of having seen caravans of
Children goaded by armed soldiers. CARRYING
baskets of rubber weighing about seventy
pounds, and of the 10000 people of Leo
poldville being so oppressed that in one
night they crossed the river into French
territory leaving the town deserted.
AT the meeting this evening Prof. Alfred
Nerinex of the University of Louvain. in
belgium. who is in this country making a
study of American Jurisprudence will pre-
sent the Belgian side of the matter