The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22
Belgian Ruler Makes American His CatspaW In the Congo
 Concessions
LEOPOLD WARDS ATTACK
 FROM BRITISH SOURCES
Astonishing Revelations Are Made In a Sworn Statement By a Former Secret Agent of Leopold In
 The Congo.

New York. December 21.-1special.)-
 Tn omas F. Ryan of Wall street and
 King Leopold of Belgium are equal
 partners in the American concession in the Congo rubber district
 Fifty per cent of the money and
 employees is under control of the New
 York financier; the other 50 per cent of
 money and employees are unden control
 of the King of Belgium, who tyran- nizes the Congo"
 This revelation now made for the
 first time. is part of an intimate story
 of the African bloodspot written by
 Baron A. Benedetti D'Altomonte. who
 for two years was chief of police of the Lower Congo, and who later was
 secret agent for Leopold. The negotiations were completed
 long before the King fell under the
 displeasure of his subjects. The story
 follows:
 By Baron Benedetti o'Altomonte.
 Thomas Fortune Ryan and King Leo
 pold of Belgium are absolute. equal
 partners in the Congo. and the Ameri-
 can financier is really a catspaw of tho
 willy old sovereign. It Is true that MT.
 Ryan, with young Mr. Rockefeller and
 oth ers holds a concession of immense
 value. But he does not control 1t. He
 played into Leopold's hands and was
 overcome by the cleverness of that
 white bearded roue. When tho news
 of the Ryan concession first reached
 America this country took off its hut
 to the willy Wall street man. It was
 believed he had tackled and downed Europes wealthiest and efaftiest ! ruler. This impression. Il Ia true. did
 not prevail in the old world Fox Perfects Plans. [ As matter of fact everything came out the way the old Flemish fox had planned long in advance. He not only
 did good stroke of business for him self in conceding to the Ryan syndi-
 cate large territory along the Congo.
 but he parried very cleverly an attack by England.
 His agents in New York succeeded in painting their proposition in such rosy
 colors that not only did they induce Ryan and his friends to invest, but
 they actually made Ryan believe that he himself had asked for and obtained that most difficult of fayors-a conces- sion in the Congo.
 l do not know how much money the Ryan crowd paid Leopold, but it was an enormous amount. And in addition he
 received preferred shares in the syndi- cate they had formed.
 do know however. that the money re- ceived from Ryan was at once used by
 the King to purchase more shares He
 had his agents find out just how much
 stock was controlled by Ryan, how much by young MT. Rockefeller and others
 and how much he would need to have an
 equal interest with the Ryan crowd. It was not long before he acquired all tho shares he needed.
 His next move was to force into the agreement he had with the Americans clause to the effect that tor every Amer
 ican or European employed by Ryan there must be d Belgian employed.s He saw to 1t that his Begians, every one, was a spy for him.
 Sworn Statement. How official knowledge Of this came
 to me l describe in the accompanying sworn statement:
 About February 10, l90o l was In tho office of the foreign minister of the Congo Free State in Brusse.s, Belgium, plan ming the campaign for my conference in Milan to offset the reform movements set
 on foot by the Congo Reform associa- ton. when l engaged in conversations With MT. kemven, nrSl secretary 10 Mon sier de Cuveller, about the eleverness of King Leopold
 He said to me: The King Is a mar vicious man. Now he is getting up an American syndicate which will stop tha English mouths He showed me letter from and signed by Thomas F. Ryan of New York in which 1t stated that MT. Ryan had received all the plans for ths formation of an American syndicate, that he had shown them to his friends and that they were accepted. MT. Ryan con- veyed his thanks to the King and gave
 his assurance that they would be in full accord on all points.
 Tn March, 1905, when l was in Milan, spoke to Commandant Motedo, one of Leopolds chief supporters In the Congo, and enjoying great government confi- dence, about this American syndicate. He told me that Leopold was get ting a large amount of the concession and some privilege shares, and that the money he was arranging to participate sni additional shares to give him half in- terest In the syndicate as he had done on all occasions in Congo concessions and syndicates. He further stated that the chief offi- cals of the syndicate and one-half of tha employees in the Congo would be Belgians with an intimate Knowledge of the rubber trade"
 l think it apparent now that on the poiitco- financial side of the deal Ryan has been nothing more than toy In