THE CONGO FREE STATE

Evening Star, Issue 12868, 18 July 1906, Page 6

THE CONGO FREE STATE

THE STANNARD CASE. Press Assoaatk»-By Telegrapb-£©pyright. LONDON, July 17. (Received July 18, at 7.27 a.nv) A missionary laboring in the Congo Free State advises tfiat the Governor-General cf the Congo refused to allow British Viceconsul Armstrong, on Sir Edward Grey's substructions, to act as counsel- for the Rev. Mr Staimard in the case wherein he was recenUy fined for libelling Major Hagstrom. _[When the news of the Rev. Edgar Stannards penalty came to hand on Julv 6 we stated that the last had not been heard of the Mr E. D. Morel, hen. secretary of the Congo Reform Association, on Mav 2 summed np the facts as follow:—"Mr Stannard, whose bona fides and the accuracy of whoso charges received unquestionable demonstration at the sittings of the Commission of Inquiry, is to be tried on May 8 on a mminal charge involving a possible one year's imprisonment, for having had the courage to continue to expose the illegalities committed.by the local Executive in his neighborhood. He is, so far as the Association are aware, totally unprovided with counsel. Tlse Congo judiciary is dependent upon the will of the Executive, which has openly violated the laws of the country on innumerable occasions. His prosecutor is an official against ■whose administration the gravest charges were preferred before the Cfcraunission of Inquiry—the evidence being suppressed by the Congo Government—and whose'administration was severely .censured in the report of the said Ctonimissioii, butawho was, nevertheksa, mamtaiied in his position by the Congo Government, which, according to the report of the Cooamission. shared his responsibility. Native witnesses can only be procured through the instrumentality of the local Executive—e.g., the prosecutor and his assistants—or the A.B.LR. Society's representatives, aud previous experiences, as to which Has Majesty's Government are informed, show that suoh witness are wholly at the mercy of the men in power, and have Kuffered cruelly for coming forward to testify." Mr Stannard was fined lJXOfr.]