Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-01-05


pold H. and his relations with
the Kongo Free State are so
much in the public mind, and
there seems to be, generally
speaking, such an indstinct comprehen-
sion of those relations, that it may serve
a useful purpose at the present moment,
when the question of the annexation of
the Kongo by Belgium is being discussed
by the parliament of the little neutral
kingdom, to state the facts connected
with the birth of the Kongo State, and
how King Leopold came to be its SOW
ereign.
In 1876 Leopold II, on his own PROPOSE
tion in conjunction with the representa-
tives of the principal European powers,
founded an international association for
the civilization of central Africa and the
abolition of the slave trade. Henry NJ.
Stanley having explored large portion
of the Kongo river the king who was
Justly recognized as the prime mover of
the time in the great African enterprise.
requested that explorer to undertake the
establishment of hospital stations along
the banks, and to open up road to facili-
tate communication between the interior
of the country and the Gulf of Guinea.
The Kongo, as distinct state, had, at
that time, no definite existence. After six
years of heroic effort and an enormous
complished the mission intrusted to him
py Leopold ii, who found the funds neces-
sary for the carrying on of the work.
Whence he obtained those funds is an
other matter, but it is certain that his
private purse was drawn upon to a con-
siderable extent to push forward the
enterprise.
In 1884 France and Portugal, believing
that their respective possessions in the
neighborhood of the Kongo might be
menaced as the result of Leopold's enter
prises, called the attention OF the great
powers to the situation. with the result
that the aforementioned association was
dissolved and a conference of the powers
summoned for the following year at Ber-
lin. 1t was at that conference that the
now famous Berlin act was signed. I'm
der IL liberty of commerce was formally
and specifically provided for throughout
central Africa, France was granted por-
ton of territory on the right bank of the
Kongo, while Portugal obtained that part
of the left bank at the mouth of the river.
The whole Of the remainder of the Kongo
basin was declared to form the "Inde-
pendent State of the Kongo." Leopold Ii,
recognized as its principal developer, was
appointed to control it. and with the
consent of the Belgian parliament-for
the Belgian constitution forbids any king
of the Belgians to become ruler of any
other country without the specific author
ity of his parliament-his majesty as
sumed the title of sovereign of the Kongo
Free State. The Kongo State was, under
this arrangement. connected with Belgium
only by reason of the fact that the king
of the Belgians was sovereign of the
state; that he governed it through an
administration in Brussels which corre-
sponded with the officials of state on
African soil. This was all the relation
officially speaking, in which Belgium stood
to the Kongo.
Such, then, were the beginnings of the
Kongo State and as such the state has
gone on existing ever since. And it is
only now. after twenty-five years of ad-
ministration by King Leopold, that a
proposal to make the state a Belgian