THE CONGO ATROCITIES.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13583, 26 November 1912, Page 3

THE CONGO ATROCITIES.

Speaking on tho subject of tlio Congo atrocities in St. Andrew's Hall, Auck-. land, Mr Joseph Steel gave tho impress of reality to what has been so ofton denied. Mr. Steel is an Auckland boy, and photographs taken by him on tho spot are of special significance, for they were made when lie was in charge of tho vessel conveying the party sent to verify tho reported atrocities. He first described tho soldiers, mostly chosen from tha licrco Bangala tribe, who were retained by tho authorities to "persuade" tho natives to supply rubber. They were brave to recklessness, but cruel and cannibal. Numbers of men, women and children were killed in the supplying of rubber. Why? He would explain. No white man could live more than six years in Central Africa, so it was a, question of .getting rich quickly and going away. The mode of extracting .rubber was this: First, the white man would go to a tribe and show them rubber, offering to buy it. In two or •three days each native would return with perhaps five kilos. This would bo boug : b by barter. Diminished paymen. .; then were made, till at last a tax i, as laid on tho tribe of so many kilos >f rubber in a fortnight, with no payii nt at all. When short of his tally .', man was piiuished by the seizure j of lii ■ wife and children, if rebellious, the soldier came into tho question, and with him the atrocities.

Among instances which Mr. Steel vouches for is. one of a soldier given five cartridges to account for. He shot an antolope, and to account for the cartridge cut off a living native's head and brought it to tho white trader as explaining tko spent cartridge. What could be done by such a man when given carte blanche, as was frequently ■done, might bo imagined, said the lecturer. Frequently whole villages were exterminated. The white trader 3iad shot a man in the mission district for refusing to get rubber. Slides of mutilated hands battered to pulp by gun butts, hands cut off at tho wrist, and ears torn off. No less than 14 mutilated men had been collected by the mission to bo photographed, but they disappeared mysteriously, and wore never seen again. When a mutilated native was found aud the authorities questioned, it was always the work of the wild pigs, of which there were many in the forest. Belgian doctors invariably attested to this. Mr. Steel concluded by saying that he now knew tho Congo atrocities to be a thing of the past. I