IN DARKEST AFRICA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2641, 16 October 1895, Page 2

IN DARKEST AFRICA.

THE EXECUTION OF THE BRITISH TRADER STOKES. By Telegraph. — Special. — Copyright, Received October 15 , 8 p.m. London, October 14. Dr Merceaux, who accompanied Major Lothaire’s expedition in the Congo Free State, has admitted to a Pall Mall Gazette interviewer that Major Lothaire sentenced the trader Stokes without code or courtmartial. SOME LIGHT UPON THE SLAVE TRADE. Received October IG , 1,10 a.m. London, October 15. Mr Mackenzie, who was sent out to Africa by the British and Foreign AntiSlavery Society as a special commissioner to investigate the condition of the slaves, after making prolonged enquiries, reports that 2 tOO lives are sacrificed every year in , order to supply the local demand in Zanzibar and Pemba, and 40,000 in the Arabian coast trade.

■ jfVom Our Special Correspondent. London, September 7. The truth of the time-worn proverb *' murder will out ” has received confirmation once again. Eight months or more ago Mr Stokes, an ex-missionary, an African,trader of wide repute, and an Englishman above all things, was hung at daybreak somewhere in the recesses of the Congo Free State at the behest of a Belgian military officer. Not till about a fortnight ago were Mr Stokes’ friends at Home aware that his earthly career had ended, and then only vague rumours were abroad. Now, however, they know for certain that he is dead, that he was tried, found guilty, sentenced and bung upon a tree on January 14th at Lindi, because Major Lothaire thought fit to bel-eve him guilty of having supplied implements of war to a savage native chief with whom the Free State were most unfriendly. The full facts of this occurrence, which is now occupying the Foreign Office, are not ascertainable, but there seems to be no doubt that, whatever was proved against the unfortunate trader at the court-martial held upon him by Lothaire, the latter acted illegally when he killed the trader. In the decree of the sovereign of the Congo State, which prescribes the rules for the administration of military justioo in the State, there is a very clear and precise paragraph which gives the right to persons convicted, who are not natives ‘and not military men, of appeal to the tribunal at Boma, where an Englishman would, of course, have the benefit of being defended by his own vice-consul. Lothaire was well aware of this provision, but in spite of Stokes’ own appeal and the protests of Dr Merceaux (who accompanied Lothaire’s expedition) he carried out the sentence of death with a promptitude which has been interpreted to mean that he had decided upon Stokes’ death, and did not intend to give anyone a chance of baulking his desire. The proceedings of the young officer throughout seem indeed to favour the allegation that he was jealous of Stokes, who was not only a most successful trader, but a very popular man with the natives with whom ho came into contact. Whatever the whole truth of the ease is we shall know before long, and we may rest assured that Major Lothaire, will be called upon to pay dearly if he exceeded liis powers one little bit. Lord Salisbury has the reputation v of being very stiff-necked when the question of the treatment of an Englishman by a foreign State comes up, and if murder was done at; Lindi (and au illegal execution is murderer nothing) he will certainly demand tiie righteous punishment of the murderer.. • Meanwhile a brief outline of the dead trader’s career may not .be out of place. Charles, Stokes was born in Dublin in 1852, where his father, a civil engineer, -was in temporary residence. Later on Stokes senior was appointed to a billet on the Irish North Western Railway, and went to live at Enniskillen, where Charles was educated. In 1872 he entered a merchant’s office in Liverpool, and, becoming impressed with religious views, offered himself in 1876 to the Church Missionary Society, and was sent to the training college at Reading, Learning of the deaths of the famous missionaries Smith and O’Neil, Stokes volunteered for the Viotoria-Nyanza mission, leaving for Africa early in 1878. In January, 1883, he married Miss Sherratt, of the Universities Mission, and in the summer of that year came Homo, returning to Africa in October. His first child, a little girl, was born in the March following, but her mother only survived the birth a few days. In 1880, Mr Stokes married the daughter of a native chief,' giving as a reason to his relatives that he could got," think of bringing another white woman tq Africa. This marriage caused him to sever his connection with, the Oburoh Missionary Society, which organisation objected to their missionaries contracting alliances with natives. Stokes had now a double responsibility. He bad to make provision for his daughter, and to maintain his mother. On leaving the mission, therefore, he entered into trading, and soqu become one of the foremost ivory men on the Upper Congo. His relatives refuse, of course, to believe that ho had ever any dealings with the Arab slave raiders, tor setting aside their knowledge of his character, he denounced slavery in almost all his letters Homo, and spoke very bitterly at times of the wrongs done to the natives. In one of his last letters he said, “ When can the slavery system cease so long as the Europeans are a party to the transaction ? Qur Government protect slave holders, and also qlf the European Governments, under the head of household slavery. I assure you, from what I knew, slavery is brisker now than it ever wijs, though, of course, you very seldom iqeet slave gauge iu chains.”