Nelsion Evening Mail. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1908. THE CONGO FREE STATE & BELGIUM. THE DIFFICULTIES OF ANNEXATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 10 February 1908, Page 2

Nelsion Evening Mail. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1908. THE CONGO FREE STATE & BELGIUM. THE DIFFICULTIES OF ANNEXATION.

FRESH difficulties appear to have arisen in connection with the annexation, or rather, the transfer, of the Congo Free State from the ownership of the King of Belgium to control by the Belgian Government. But it may be taken for granted that public opinion, now thor- | oughly aroused by the atrocities so long perpetrated under present conditions, will insist on an early change. A Belgian deputy recently declared, or was reported to have declared, that the treaty for the annexation of the Congo was "the result of an unsuccessful attempt by Germany to secure the partition of the country between Britain, France, and herself. But it is not necessary to attach any importance to the statement. The question of annexation has been prominenly before the Belgian Government since 1901, when under a pricr convention it became competent for Belgium to take over the Congo from King Leopold. But the Belgian Government has not been particularly anxious to avail itself of the privilege, for the simple i°ason that King Leopold is imposed so many conditions upon the cession that if the Belgian Government take over the country on Leopnld's terms, the transaction will practically amount to the transference to the Government of all the obloquy which has hitherto been deservedly cast on the King for the hideous cruelty with which the natives, their labour nnd their products, have been exploited. * * » • ■ A further difficulty is that wj^je the Belgian Government in annexing the State will have to incur enormous expanse to introduce effective administration, it will alao have to pay to the King a sum so large that it is calculated to embarrass and hamper a small and not very wealthy country such as Belgium, r.nd leave no profit from the expenditure. King Leopold's ingenious plan, as now appears from the treaty of cession, is to make the Belgian Government pay him all the profits derived from its solitary colonial possession, while at the same time ridding himself of the trouble of administering the country, a task which this intensely avaricious old monarch , has carried out by means of brutalities that have affronted all Europe. Since the Congo Free State was handed over to King Leopold's tender mercies by the International Congo Conference at Berlin, in 1885, dreadful etoriea of the cruelties inflicted upon the natives in order to compel them to gather the rubber, which is the chief product of the country, have continually leaked out to the horror of every civilised Government. Mr E. Morel's revelations of the barbarous mutilations which he saw j perpetrated by Leopold's black troops ' on the wretched rubber-gatherers sent a thrill of indignation through Europe. Missionaries • of all nationalities have brought back the same testimony, and at lasi, in 1905, » commission of inquiry was held which virtually bore out these reports. Reforms were promised, but Sir Edward Grey, British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, speaking in the House of Commons, declared that these reforms were less than had been recommended by the commission, and there is nnhappily every reason to believe that the natives are still flogged and mutilated for failure to bring in the prescribed quantity of rubber, the price of which goes almost entirely into King Leopom's private purse. When the story of obloquy broke over the head of King Leopold, and gained for him the title of "tne Boyal Scamp," some Belgian deputies, with pardonable loyalty, affected to believe ' that jealousy had prompted the outburst. But latterly there have not been wanting indications that the Belgians have opened their eyes to the tru« «-

tent of the evils being perpetrated. Hence an effort is being made to compel the King to keep to his bargain with the Belgian Government, made about 18 years ago. Leopold had borrowed £1 000,000 from the Belgian Government in'lß9o, without interest, for the administration of the Congo tree State, Z "'condition being made that Belgium might annex it in ten years. Failing annexation, )p undertook to leave the rich African oSpendency to Belgium in his will. The right to annex the country has tWore, bdonged to the Belgian Government ever since 1901, and the hief reason why it had not been exercised appears to be because Leopold has saddledtho revenues with heavy annuities for various members of his family, with heavy charges for the upkeep ot various picture galleries, and other public institutions in Brussels, and, worst of all, with a conditon that for 12 years after the annexation the Belgian Government shall hand over to him every pound of rubber derived from his Congo forests at a fixed low price The iniquity -of the last stipuation is that the Begian Government could not sell to the King the rubber at the low price he had named without exploiting the Congo natives and giving them as cruelly as the agents of the King had done. The treaty now before the Belgian Parliament provides that the Government may buy outright all the King's interest in the Congo Free fatate (the domaine de la Couronne), forming one-eighth of the entire territory, on the basis of the revenue from the pioperty in 1906, capitalised at 3 per cent. It is estimated that the Belgian Gove.nment would have to pay the enterprising Royal speculator £100,000,000 ,n • order to Ly hW out finally. It is fiardly surprising, therefore, that the process of annexing th eCongo Free State to Belgium goes forward slowly.