The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-03-30
DENIES THE CHARGE
In Congo Free State the Ma
tiveS Are Not Abused
MUST PAY SOME TAXES
No Government Can Live
Which Is Not Supported.
MUST PAY SOME TAXES

washington. March 29.-ChevaIer De
Cuvelier. secretary general of the state
department of Congo in a recent note
to the British government pertaining TO
alleged conditions in the Congo Free
State affecting the treatment of natives
and tarde, denies that the manner in
which the state is administered entails
q systematic regime of cruelty or Of
oppression and that the principle Of
freedom of trade would cause modification
in the law of property as is universally
understood. He says that in the multi
tude of meetings and speeches directed
OF late against the state always the same
facts are affirmed. and the same evidence
produced Concerning the treatment of
the natives the note recites that the
government Of the state never has denied
that crimes and offenses are committed
in the Congo, ''as in every other country
and in every other colony" Further, it
is stated that it is recognized that these
Inisedmeanors have been brought be-
fore the tribunals and their authors have
been punished. The conclusion to be
the state fulfills its mission and that if,
a. a matter of fact, some offenses have
escaped over the vast territory of the
state the vigilance Of judicial authori-
ties. this circumstance would not be
peculiar to the Congo state. The author
tiles have severely punished persons con-
victed as salutary lessons to others. Re
ferring to the allegations that in a train
proceeding from LeOpoldville TO Matad
three wagons were filled with slaves, of
whom a dozen were chained under the
guard of soldiers, the governor general
is quoted as saying that the great num-
Der Of those represented to compose a
convoy of slaves were militiamen being
dispatched from one district to another
and that the chained men were a party
Of persons condemned by the territorial
tribunal at Basoko and who are to work
out their punishment in the central prison
OF Bona.
Replying to allegations against the sys-
TEN of the states administration so far as
concerns the taxes the note says:
AT the bottom it is the contribution
of the Congo native to the public ex-
penses that is criticised, as if there ex-
listed a single country or a single colony
where the inhabtants under one form
or another did not bear his part in those
expenses. A state without resources is
inconceivabIe On what legitimate foun-
dalton could the exemption of natives
from all taxation be based when they
are the first to benefit by advantages in
the material and moral order introduced
in Africa? In default of money a con-
tribution in labor is required of them.
Others have spoken of the necessity in
order TO save Africa from barbarism of
bringing the blacks TO the comprehension
of work, precisely by the obligation of
paying a tax"
1t is denied that the men composing the
armed force of the state We're in many
cases recruited from the most warlike
and savage tribes the assertion being
made that the public force is recruited
In all the provinces and from among the
whole population of the state. Continu-
ing. the secretary general says that since
IS9S, the Improvement in the general con-
dition has progressed still further; that
the post of negro soldiers which has been
criticised exists no more and that school
and workshops are being multiplied.
Economically speaking, it would be de
plorable," he says, that in spite of
rights regularly acquired by the whites
the domain lands should be disposed of
as to pass even temporarily in the hands
of natives. 1t would he the return to
their former state of abandonment when
the natives left them unproductive." In
conclusion. it is asserted that the policy
Of the state has not, as has been stated
killed trade but on the contrary, has
created and fostered il.