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The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1904 THE CONGO ATROCITIES.

Mb. E. D. Morel, who is just now visiting the United States, of America in order to present a memorial from the Congo Reform Association to President Roosevelt, and who. pleaded for the cause of -humanity before the Boston Peace Conference, is described in the current issue of "The Review of Re-

views" as "one of ■ tihe most remarkable

of the younger journalists of our time — in some ways, perhaps, the most remarkable. Mr. Morel is the. editor of the West African "Mail," and lie is'also the heart and soul of. the Congo Reform Association. He is the English David, who, with the sWng of his paper and the smooth stones of carefully-verified evidence, has gone forth to fight with the modern Goliath of Gath, the Emperor Leopold of the Congo. Mr. Morel has just published a book entitled' "King Leopold's Rule in Africa." A London reviewer describes this work as "a sober statement of fact laboriously compiled. The horror and indignation of its aiithdr peep out now and again, in a biting phrase; but for the most part hie feelings are studiously concealed. Yet there is enough evidence of brutal oppression in hisi pages to excus© him if he had indulged in the most bitter vituperation." From the facts which he sets out it is clear that Mr. Morel's chief indictment of the .Congo Stat© is not commercial, but humanitarian. By th© Act of Berlin, the King of the Belgians took over the <§ontirol of a vast extent of territory bordering on, the Congo. EKisi Majesty, as he has o fte>n subsequently informed us, was inspired by the noblest ideals. He intended to be a pioneer of "civilasation and moral regeneration." Trade was to be free; internal wars among tihe natives were to cease; the Word of God was to be spared; and wherever It's commercial Belgians advanced the dove of peace might be expected to flutter: It was indeed a picture of sentimental and most noble philanthropy that was painted" by the royal brush. Mr. Morel carefully describes the steps that.were taken to bring about this idea!situation. . The vast regions of the Upper Congo were under Arab domination. There was some slavery, it is true; but the freedom of organised native communities was not interfered with. The Arabs came to trade, not to rob and pillage only. The Congo Free State commenced a war of extermination against its rivaL traders, the Arabs. It enlisted1 la^ge bodies of troops from the cannibal' regions, and in the end -annihilated the Arab power. It, was from that»time —January, 1894—'that these soiidiers- began to be employed as,black, police under a system how to be described. The Buta Matadi, as these troops are called, are without doubt largely recruited from the most cruel and degraded beings in West Africa. The Congo State bethought itself of an exooiliont plan. It proclaimed that" all vacant land such as forest and bush was State property. All that could be .collected in these regions, rubber and ivory to wit, was therefore State property. The natives scattered about the bush, and forest in hundreds of villages found themselves the* proprietors of their houses arid little clearings, but of nothing more. Again .thes© natives were astonishingly idle. In King Leopold's scheme for the- spread of civilisation it was obviously necessary to make the nigger work. He could not be morally regenerated while he sat in the suu, and. ate fruit. So tlhe order went forth that he shou/ld work. Let him collect rubber and ivory—-those wore the most valuable commodities hie land produced. But when he had.collectad them', he discovered that they belonged::to t!h© State. Ho was a robber of perquisites "Belonging to his betters. Let them therefore be taken from him. As a member of the Belgian Parliament reeemtly re>marked in a Congo debate, "th® natives are not entitled to anything; what is given 'them is a veritable gratuity!" Now the chiefs did not weiloome th:s gratuity system. They objected, they rebelled. It was dreadful for King Leopold to sea such backsliding.; such hard-

ness of heart. They must be morally regenerated by force. What a comfort it was that, there were 'black cannibals within call, officered by'trusty Belgians! So the Buta. Matadi wore ,';et loose.' Tlie villagers got tlie rubber and ivory with astonishing despatch. They worked with a will. If they did riot, they ceas?d to exist, and the Buta Matadi were ingenious executioners. As the official report /lately had it, "the system of the State, at the same time that ib hastens the economic development of tho country, lias given rise to a oonsiderablo commercial movement, since the exports now show a value of tfwo millions sterling, and that there are sold at Antwerp every year five thousand tons of rubber. " Well done the Biita Matadi. There is a liarger''tract of territory which our good King LeopoLd holds as. his special preserve. Here we might expect* to find the great philanthropist ever demising fresh schemes of moral regeneration. But th© facts are not encouraging. In 1899 a party of missionaries dared to advance'into this domain of tlie Crown. They' were promptly turned out by the Buta. Matadi, under instructions. But in 1903 Mr. Scrivener, an English •missionary, entered this royal enclosure. . He,found deserted, villages and ruined plantation®. Mr. Scrivener had the opportunity while at this Stat© post, under the l-egjme of a man who was. endeavouring to be as humane as his inatructions allowed, to actually sc« the, process whereby the se-creb revenues of the "Domaino da lia Oouronne" are obtained. He says: .'"Everything'was on a. military basis, but, so.far as I oould see, the one and oniy reason for it all was rubber. . . . I hoard from the white

men and some of the soldiers some most gruesome; stories. The former white man (I foal ashamed of my ocCour every timo I tlrjnk of him) would stand at thedoor of the store to receive the rubber" from the poor trembling wretches, who, after, in .some ca&cs. weeks of privation in the forests, had ventured in with. what they had been able to collect. A man bringing rather under the proper amount, tlhe> white man flies Into a rage, and, sci'zing a rifle from one- of -.tlie^ guards, shoots him dead on the spot. Very rarely did rubber come in, but one or more were tihot in tliat way at the door of the stored —'to make the survivors bring' more next time.' Men who had tried to run from the country and had been caught were brought to the station and made to stand one behind the other, and an Albini bultet cent. through thorn. 'A pity to waste cartridges on such wretches.' On removing from the station, his successor almost fa/irited on attempting to enter the station prison, in which were numbers of poor wretches so reduced by-starvation and the awful stench from weeks of ac-^ cumulation of filth that they were not able to stand. Some of the stories are unprintable. . . . Only the roads to and from the various posts are kept open, and large tracts of country are abandoned.^to the wild beasts. ' The whit© man' himself told me that you couM walk on for five days in one direction and not see a single vH'iage or a single human being. And' this where formerly there was a, big tribe Here again is. l the 'report of- Mr. Roger Co cement, his Majesty's Consul at Boma. He gave in his report some conversations with the blacks in the Kind's domain. They refer to muti'latjons, bestial and execrable, to murdered women and tortured chiMren!.. And why ? Because the tale of rubber was not oomplett.* The Israelites an Egypt were wrapped in luxury compared with the natives, who are suffering mom! regeneration in the King's domain. The Armeni:vi.s 4<-imcl the Turk a gentle dilettante compared with the poor black brutes who are civilised by the Buta, Ma'tadi! "In the name of humanity, of oomanon decency, and pity," writes Mr. Morel, "will not the *

Anglo-Saxon race make-up their minds to handi© this monstrous outrage resolutely, and so point a way and set an example wh.'ich others would be compelled to follow ?"

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19041203.2.9

Bibliographic details

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLVIII, Issue 12365, 3 December 1904, Page 4

Word Count
1,379

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1904 THE CONGO ATROCITIES. Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLVIII, Issue 12365, 3 December 1904, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1904 THE CONGO ATROCITIES. Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLVIII, Issue 12365, 3 December 1904, Page 4

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