New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-30
AS A BELGIAN COLONY.
Only Practical Solution of the Congo
Scandal Problem.

Diplomatic pressure is being brought to bear
upon the Belgian government to assume possession
forthwith of the Congo Free State and to trans
form it into a full-hedged Belgian colony at once
without waiting for the death of King Leopold.
who, as every knows. has announced his in
tention of bequeathing the sovereignty of the Free
State to the Belgian nation at his demise This
action on the part of the foreign powers is cal
culated to relieve them of all the mputations of
land greed freely circulated by King Leopolds
press agents and paid platform speakers These
gentry have all along asserted that the stories of
the appalling atrocities perpetrated in the Congo
Free State untrue and merely cooked UP for
the purpose of afordng pretext to certain foreign
powers notably England, to intervene and to seize
the Congo Valley. adding to the English colonial
empire.
No power, England least of ALL wishes for the
territory of the Congo State. especially after
the frightful condition TO which 1t has been re-
duced by the Free State officials and by the ruan-
~ agents of the rubber companies, TO which King
Leopold has farmed Immense tracts of land
The atrocities have been proved and confirmed
over and over again by British. Italian Austrian,
German and French government officials. by men
of the stamp of Lord Cromer and Sir Harry john
by Roger Easement. who is one of the Oldest.
reliable and experienced members OF His
Britannia Majestys consular service by the reports
of Surgeon Major Baccari the personal representa-
tive of King Victor Emmanuel, who was sent out
by him to investigate the conditions in the Congo,
by other Italian government representatives. ana
last, but not least, by the very records OF the
Free State courts at Bona, which show the mere
nominal penalties inflicted for crimes upon the
natives of such peculiar atrocity that not even
the Free State officials could afford to let them
pass unnoticed.
The British Secretary of State for the Colonies
has lately issued instructions to all the governors
of the British possessions in Africa directing them
to warn the natives subject to their administra-
ton to abstain from taking any kind of service in
the Congo Free State, or even setting foot on the
territories of the latter, calling their attention 10
the dangers to which they would be exposed IL
they disregarded this warning Colonial Secretary
Lytteton likewise ordered the various governors
that no agents of the Congo government nor of the
various companies and syndicates- farming RUBBER
concessions from the Free State should be allowed
to recruit in any English colony natives for ser
vice in the Congo Valley. These orders are anaia-
gous to those which have been issued by the Italian
government which prohibits all ltahan ON
GERS, non-commissoned officers on the retreo
list, from taking service in the Congo Free state.
If the foreign powers anxious for Belgium 10
take over the Free State and to transform IL into
a Belgian colony it is because at the present mo-
ment no one be held to legal accounting for the
outrages perpetrated under the Free State nag
King Leopold. absolute sovereign OF the Free
State, is, of course morally responsible, out not
legally so. For his position and status as King
of the Belgians render him exempt from all 1uris-
diction, and when redress is asked of the Belgian
government It disclaims all responsibility or con-
nection with the Congo. Leopold, cvnlcdl anu m
different to public oboquy is beyond the reach OF
any action, either by individuals or by govern
ments, for wrongs committed by his agents In the
Congo or for injuries sustained through them snort
of some concerted movement by the powers de-
Driving him of the sovereignty of this particular
portion of Africa, which they conferred upon MIN
a little more than twenty years ago. But were the
Belgian nation TO take the Free State as a
colony the Belgian government could then be legal
" held accountable by individuals, while there
-.tz1y nraiyr n
taking diplomatic action for redress which do not
exist under present circumstances.