The Haslingden Gazette. — 1910-01-22 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

ABOUT THE GHASTLY HORRORS FOR WHICH THE RING OF THE BELGIANS IS RESPONSIBLE.  old everywhere in "oses, price I I (56 pills( at 29 (168 pills, _  gvnerally speaking, are very swampy—involves 1 much fatgue, and often fruitless searching for a ' well-flowing vine. As the area of supply diminliahes, moreover, the demand for rubber constantly increases.  "Some little time back I learned the -Bongandanga district supplied seven tons of rubber a month, a quantity which it was hoped would shortly be increased to ten tons. Tho quantity of rubber brought by the three men in question would have represented, probably, for the three of them, certainly not less than seven hilog, of pure rubber. That would be a very safe estimato, and at an average of If r, per kilog, they might be said to have brought in £2 worth of rubber. In return for this labour, or imposition, they had received goods which omit certainly tinder Is., and whams looal valuation oame to 45 rods (ls. 10d.)•  , " As thia prooes repeats itself twenty-six times a year, it will be seen that they should havo yielded £52 in kind at the end of the year to the local factory, and would have received ia return some 245. or 25a worth of goods, which bad a market value on the spot of £2 7s. Bd. In addition to these formal payments they were liable at times to be dealt with in another manner, for should their work, which might have been juet as hard, have proved less profitable in its yield of rubber, tho local prison would have seen them. The people everywhere assured me that they were , not happy under this system, and it wan apparent to a callous eye that in this they spoke the strict truth."  Later in his report Consul Casement confirms what others have stated regarding the mutilations, and he mentions that added evidenoe is provided by numerous photographs of maimed natives, taken by himself. . _  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle explains why the actual perpetrators of the Congo crimes are less to be blamed than the instigators—and the chief instigator. He Bays— This is the sequence of events. The man sees an advertisement offering a commercial situation in the tropics. He applies to a bureau. He is told that the salary is some seventy-five pounds a year, with a bonus on results. He knows nothing of the country or conditions. He accept.. He is then asked if he has any money. He has not. One hundred pounds ia advanced to him for expenses and outfit, and he is pledged to work it off. Ho goes out and finds the terrible nature of the task before him. He must condone crime to get his results. Suppose he resigns? ' Certainly,' say the authorities; 'but you must remain there until you have worked off your debt!' He clarinet possibly get down the river, for the abetment are all under Government control. What can he do, then! There is one thing which he very ' frequently does, and that is, to blow out his brains. The statistics of suicide are higher than in any service in the world.  "But suppose he takes the line: ' Very well, 1 twill stay if you make me do so, but I will expose 'these misdeeds to Europe.' What theca The routine is a simple one. An official charge is preferred against hint of illtreating the native& 111-treating of some sort in always going forward, and there is no difficulty, with the help of the sentries, in proving that something for which the agent is responsible does not tally with tho written law, however much it might be the recognised custom. He is taken to Boma, tried, and condemned. Thus it comes about that the prison of Boma may at the same time contain the beet men and the worst—the men whose ideas were too humane for the authorities as well as those whose crimes could not be overlooked even by a Congolese administration. Take warning, you who seek service in this dark country, for suicide. the Boma prison, or such deeds as will poison your memory for ever aro the only choice which will lie before you." At the end of his remarkable book, Sir Arthur Conan Doylo begs his readers to help to erase the great Congo blot on civilisation by writing te their members of Parliament. expressing their disgust with the horrors. The natives of the Congo are powerless to help themselvee. Britain oan stop the atrocities whenever she decides to do so. lINFIE