CONGO FREE STATE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1628, 13 May 1903, Page 21

CONGO FREE STATE

OFFICIAL REPORT ON RECENT ATROCITIES.

“NO GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD SO WICKED.”

LONDON, May 6.

Mr Morrison, an American missionary, has reported to Lord Lansdowne, Minister for Foreign Affairs, many cases of official atrocities in the Congo Free State. Ho declares that no Government in the world is so wicked—not even Turkey.

Some interesting details of life in the Congo Free State are given in a book lately written by Captain Guy Burrows, entitled “The Curse of Central Africa,” with which is incorporated a work by Edgar Canisius, “A Campaign Amongst Cannibals.” Captain Burrows, who Avas recommended for the position by Mr H. M. Stanley, served the Government of the Congo Free State for six years as Commandant and District Commissioner, while Mr Canisius was also a prominent official of that Government. In the book mentioned there is told a terrible narrative of hideous cruelty, treachery and raw animalism—probably one of the most painful' stories ever related of the rule of a sa\ r age people by a efeilieed Christian State. Much of, what could truly be said of the acts of Major Lothaire .and his comrades in authority— Avhole chapter’s of facts . which he has noted—are declared by the writer to be unprintable. The atrocity and utter abominableness of the conduct of Belgian officials towards the Congo blacks is corroborated by Mr Canisius. The book must create a deep sensation in the civilised world, and cause son* international stir. It could only be justified by a Avortliy purpose, which is to make The blood "of sane compassionate men boil at a comprehension of what is going on in the depths of Africa; to rouse them regarding Belgian administration Avith glimpses of a truth too terrible as a Avhole for full re\elation. There ka\’e been many sinister stories, since the name of Major Eothaire first became notorious, of Avhat happens in Congo Free State, but none so definite, so seemingly authoritative, as this. Summed up the charge here made against the rule of ’Central Africa from Brussels may be thus stated:—That the governing authorities have for many years past been aAvare of the serious nature of the crimes perpetrated in the country AA’hich they were supposed to go\ r ern; that they ha\*e used every means Avithin their poAver to aA’oid the publication of facts damaging to themselves, and even A\ r ent so far in 1898 as to notify their officials that they must use their greatest discretion in writing to their friends regarding Congo affairs. That they failed to punish the higher officials Avho instigated offences; that their subordinates, Avho were occassionally tried and convicted, Avere eventually allowed to escape; and that the administration of the Congo Free State has endeavoured to protect itself from criticism by obtaining a local injunction against the publication of this book, claiming that, pending this injunction, no reference to its misdeeds should be published in England. The publication of the book has, however, been accomplished. One can only hope that there is a good ansAA’er to the indictment. That Avould gfee relief to the feeling which the book must of itself excite." It Avill proA r e a very Avide publication, and one that must Ire authoritatfeely ansA\ r ered if Belgian foreign administration is to be rehabilitated. Instances of hoAv the State has been administered, and is probably still administered, may be gathered from the folloAving, taken from the introduction to “The Curse of South Africa”:—“On October 7th, 1895, at Lusuna, Lothaire, then in command of an expeditionary column against the revolted Batatelas, detained some 100 men, Avomen and children who came in Avith the intention of placing themselves under his protection. Of- this number, four chiefs and tAventysix men were selected and foully murdered. Two of the chiefs Avere tortured in a fashion so cruelly diabolical, that it is scarcely possible to believe that it could be the outcome of a Avhite man’s brain. To a cross pole, run along three upright posts put in the ground, the wretched victims were suspended by cords attached to the neck, the middle and the feet. A doctor, in the presence of Lothaire and the other Europeans accompanying the expedition, then proceeded to remove the scalps of the tortured men. His black assistant also, by order of the doctor, amused the white spectators by sawing through the shinbones and cutting off the victims’ noses and ears. These proceedings lasted about an hour, when the wretched men were cut doAvn, handed over to the tender mercies of Lothaire’s soldiers, and throAvn into the bush. Eight days later two men and a woman were taken prisoners, and brought into Lothaire’s camp. The men Avere first compelled to outrage the woman in the presence of the white men and the soldiers, and then hanged, heads down %vard, from the branches of a ti’ee in the camp. The rope was in each case tied to one ankle, a cord having been previously twisted

around the big toe. While in this position tie victims were subjected to every indignity Avkich the native mind could conceive. During the night one man managed to release himself, but xvas retaken, and hung up again in the manner described. Once more he escaped and Avas re-taken; but this time Lothaire graciously granted him his freedom. The other man and the woman were, however, beaten to death by the soldiers during the folloAving morning. A fortnight later, while the expedition was in camp near N’gaudu, or the Lomaini River, a dozen men and women were captured by the soldiers, and brought before Lothaire, who said, curtly enough, 'Take them aAA'ay.’ They Avei’e then removed by the soldiers about fifty yards outside the camp and butchered Avith small knives. The Avretched people offered no resistance to the murderers, but stretched themselves on the ground and aAA’aited the thrust of the knives with fixed stolidity. At Stanley Falls on August 28th, 1895, two men Avere arrested a short distance beyond tlie station on suspicion of ha\ing indulged in cannibalism. A corpse had been .found in the bush, without any traces of violence upon it. On the strength of this evidence tho Belgian officer commanding the post ordered the prisoners to be put in chains, and a leg cut from the corpse to be tied around each man’s neck. The men Aver® then exposed to the fierce rays of the sun in tlie centre of the station, without either,food or water.” Mr Francis Shaw writes as follows: The cable neAvs from London regarding matters in the Congo State recalls another atrocious incident of the life of Major Lothaire, viz., the murder of the British trader Charles Henry Stokes, native of Dublin, and an ex-missionary of the Church Missionary Society, at Victoria Nyanza. Briefly, the facts are that Stokes and his caravan Avas decoyed into Lotliaire’s camp at Lindi after sundown on the evening of the 13th January, 1895, and despite his entreaties and appeal, supi>orted by the protests of Dr Merceaux (who accompanied Lothaire’s expedition), to be tried by the tribunal at Boma (the legal court for foreigners), he AA'as hanged at 6 o’clock the next morning. His caraA'an consisted of a considerable number of natives of IJsikuma (his second wife being a natfee of their leading chief), and Avas conveying to the coast some <£looo AvOrth of ivory. In addition to the murder of Stokes, Lpthaire ordered the slaughter of 400 members of his party, OAving to their refusal to accompany his (Lothaire’s) expedition. Th® motfees for the murder are alleged to be many, but doubtless the true ones are Lotliaire’s jealousy of Stokes’s influence with the native races and the 10 per cent, commission he Avould derive from th® Belgium Government for securing th® ivory. Stokes . Avas described by the* English neAvspapers at the time of his death as “the first and only European trader betAveen Bagamoyo and Uganda.” So great Avas his influence betAveen Tabora and Lake Victoria Nyanza that Avhen the Germans decided to occupy the hinterland they appointed him as Commissioner. When on his memorable search for Livingstone, Mr .H. M. Stanley resided for about six months with Mr Stokes.