St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1906-06-20
Congo Free (Slave) State.

new state, limited by no parliament or
congress.
He had been the prime mover in send
mo out the expeditions under Henry M.
Stanley 1874.77. and his avo wed purpose
was to open up Central Africa to free
trade tor all European nations and i'm
nroye the condition OF the nations.
The Berlin conference had stipulated in
q treaty drawn up that there should be
freedom of commerce and trade for all
nations, that missions and philanthropic
enterprises of every kind should be per-
mitted to carry on their work without
any restriction or impeachment whatever
and that there should be no slave trade.
"Our only program" said King
Leopold, sis the work of moral and
material regeneration"
And what has been the outcome? A
despotism relentless and overbearing
toward native and foreigner.
To begin with, the king passed DEGREES
giving over to the state all the lands OF
the natives except the small part under
cultivation. The natives were forbidden
to hunt or collect produce. They were
LETT only rough plantations barely suffic-
Ing to feed them and supply the stations.
Then he set apart great areas for his own
speculation. From these regions all
traders and missionaries were excluded.
Next he assigned large sections to
Belgian monopolist companies. Exclu-
sive rights of trade were given them.
The profits of the capitalists have been
enormous. Belgians now control four
fiths OF the entire export and import
trade OF the country, and the Congo
state is the largest rubber dealer IN the
world.
Between 1885 and 1889 the king
noticed that the Arabs were encroaching
on the eastern part OF his domain. He
also realized more fully the value of the
rubber to be found in the forests. So in
1889 a conference of the powers was
called in Brussels and the king secured
the right to organize and equip native
army, tor the purpose, as he said, OF sup
pressing the Arab slave trade.
Now consider his method of raising his
army OF $4,000 men and see il it could be
called an improvement over the Arab
slave trade.
A white officer with a few soldiers
summons a native chief and asks for
some slaves. These are armed and drill
ed and used to punish any chief who is
slow in supplying the required number
OF slaves. A refusal to supply slaves is
treated as declaration of war, villages
are burned, women tied up, people shot.
until the slaves are furnished. A force OF
men is thus raised and thousands Of can't
bal tribes enrolled to supplement it.
Then the white men are ready for work.
Natives are summoned and ordered to
bring in rubber. II they refuse, they are
shot, il the supply is short, there is war.
Houses are burned, crops are destroyed.
innocent victims shot down. 1t is
common practice to sieze the women
that the men may be forced to bring
rubber. The poor things are herded in
filthy pens and sheds where many die, or
they are made to work as slaves, driven
like dogs here and there. hard at work
from morning to night, often dying OF
starvation.
The native of the Congo is by nature
essy.going and opposed to hard work.
Collecting rubber is task involving toll,
difficulty and danger, exposure to the
weather and to the attacks OF wild
beasts. The man must go on one or two
days march every fortnight and bring
back four pounds OF rubber. for which he
is paid two pence a pound by the local
agent. lit fetches three shillings pound
in European markets.. Then after two
or three days at home he must start out
again. During his absence in the forest
he leave all be has at the mercy OF the
Sentinels placed over the village and his
wife may be il.treated or stolen by them.
At the end of the fortnight, il the native
does not bring back full quantity he is
logged. sometimes killed and the right
hand is cut of, dried and sent with the
rubber to show why the supply was
short. Natives have been killed by
hundreds because the supply was
short.
The whip used for fogging (the
chicotte) is OF raw hide (hippo) trimmed
like a corkscrew with edges like knife
blades and as hard as wood. A few
blows bring blood and after % or 80
blows the victim is insenslble, yet
sometimes 100 blows are given. And
not only men, but women and children
are punished in this way.
Here is a scene typical of Leopold's
civlizing methods. A party OF 80 was
sent TO see if the natives of a certain
village were collecting rubber, if not to
kill all. The natives were found at home.
When asked what they were doing they
failed to give satisfactory reply, where
upon they were all killed. To make the
scenes more terrible the bodies OF the
dead are usually given over to the canni-
bal soldiers to eat.
A subordinate officer receives instruc'
tons from superior to furnish by set
time certain number OF soldiers, or q
certain amount OF rubber. Soldiers are
placed at his disposal and he usually
meets the demands oil his superiors even
if is at the cost of boodshed, devasta
ton of villages and plantations, ano
inhuman foggings.
AS natural result the country is being
depopulated very rapidly. In one district
the population fell in three years
(Balobo) from 10000 to 5000; II
another in the same time (Lakalols,
from 5000 to 352. For another five
years at this rate some districts will bt
depopulated. Natives flee to the marshes
and thickets or across the frontiers tc
find shelter in the French or Portuguese
Congo. Missionaries report that they
have seen thousands (50.000) of people
hiding tor weeks in the forests without
shelter or food seeking refuge from thu
white Belgian officers and native soldiers
Diseases are brought on by this expos
J1ra a nj hu tho ,11;eera hla tents native!