The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-22

existence on the exploitation OF the
rubber forests which owe a great part
Of It's area. The National RevieC points
out that for some years past more than
SOper cent. of the exports from the Congo
have consisted solely of rubber; and as
the natives have been robbed OF all their
rights and there is no legitimate inoen-
tive left to induce them to work, the
State has been driven to fall back on
forced labor and coercion of the most
revolving character in order to secure
the exploitation OF the forests. What
means are employed to exercise coercion
were set forth by NJ. VANDERvELDE in
the Belgian Chamber Of Deputies. The
means are, first, the chicotte, or hippo
potamus whip, which leaves bloody
weals on the bodies Of those upon whom
it is used; secondly, servile labor i'm
posed upon the chiefs; thirdly, the seiz-
ing of hostages, and, what is more terri
BILE than all, the black soldiers of the
force publiQue, whose Intervention is
indispensable to the working Of the
system. The report OF the commission
t~estiies that these black ~auxiliaries.
especially those who are stationed in the
villages, abuse the authority given to
them, make themselves into despots,
and claim the m and food, not only
for themselves but for the bands of para
sites and ruffians which the love of rapine
associates with them; they kill without
pity all individuals who attempt to
withstand their exigencies and whims.
The worst lot Of all is that Of the unfOr-
tunate natives of a village which offers
resistance for the moment successful.
Such a village becomes the victim of
a so-called punitive expedition whose
weapons are wholesale conlagration and
massacre.
The commission Of inquiry was in
clined to attribute the worst outrages
to the absence of effective white super
vision I'VE the black troops, M.LoRAND,
however, a member Of the Liberal party,
was constrained to produce in the Cham
Der of Deputies the instructions sent by
a commandant to a subordinate white
official, who was ordered to inform the
natives Of a particular village that if they
cut another rubber vine they would be
exterminated to the last man. The re-
port of the commission Of inquiry itself
showed that the blame for the frightful
abuses should not be placed solely Oh
secondary officials, but that higher author
tiles were involved. 1t acknowledged
that the administration Of justice in
the Congo State has failed lamentably
to exercise restraint on the preparation
Of execrable crimes. The commission
found that often prosecutions begun
against white men accused of i'll treating
natives had been quashed through adj
ministrative interference.
As regards remedies, the commission
Of inquiry recommended a broad and
liberal Interpretation and application Of
the laws affecting land tenure, the en-
forcement Of the law limiting the impo-
sition Of forced labor to forty hours a
month, the suppression Of the system
Of sentries and the carrying of arms by
the black guards, the withdrawal from
the trading companies of the right to
employ coercion, the regulating Of mill
tary expeditions, and the abolition Of
military interference with the judiciary.
Practically nothing has been done by
King LEOPOLD to carry out these recon-
mendations. The report vas referred
to a packed commission of fourteen MEN,
bers, nine of whom were officials of the
incriminated administration or corpora
tions. The sole outcome of this COM
mission up to the present time has been
a letter signed by three implicated MEM
bers, in which the recommendations Of
the commission Of inquiry are either
ignored or whitfield down or rendered
illusory by conditions and reservations.
AS a matter of fact, the Congo State
which only by a CHASTITY misuse Of Ian
guage can be described as -Free"-has
ceased to be a State in the ordinary ac-
c~eptation of the term, and has become
practically a huge plantation" reck-
lessly exploited for King LEOPOLD by
methods which differ only in name from
slave labor, and which are far more
atr%ooiousIy wasteful of human life than
any that ever were followed in the British
or Spanish West Indies. Experience has
shown thai nothing in the way of amend
ment can be expected from the sover-
eign, to whom in 1885 the Berlin Confer
ence incautiously conceded a privileged
position in Central Africa. He is in
corrigible by appeals to humanity and
decency.
1t remains to be seen how the Belgian
Parliament will deal with him in the
session now close at hand. II it fails
to hold him to a strict account for the
iniquities which he has upheld and by
which he has proited, it will remain for
the civilized nations which took part
in the Berlin Conference to act. As
King LEOPOLD was warned not long ago
by a Flemish Deputy belonging to the
most conservative and catholic wing OF
the Government party: THE day will
come when the light Of truth will be
thrown upon the Congo and you will
be plunged in darkness. For truth is
comparable to steam, which when com
nroaaad acOuires ~Ureatar force Beware