Belgian Congo

“ Will she prove strong enough, wise enough, great enough to bring order out of the chaotic state of affairs into which her late ruler plunged the Congo territories? It would require a bold man to give an unqualified affirmative to this question. Cover several thousand miles of that territory, live for months with the aboriginal tribes, discuss administrative problems with Congo officials, watch the operations, and listen to the conversations of the German and Portuguese merchants—and a permanent Belgian control of the Congo becomes a matter of considerable doubt. ”

“ In West Africa things are not, and never can be, quite so bad, although in some colonies, the Gold Coast for example, German Cameroons and French Congo, land difficulties are being piled up for the endless confusion of future administrators. In Belgian Congo there is no immediate probability of trouble, due partly to the fact that capital has little confidence in Belgium’s heritage, but more because the major part of the population has disappeared. ”

“ The succeeding apathy of the Powers in no wise abated the energy of the Congo Free State in its heroic effort to realise for civilisation the views which Belgian statesmen had largely inspired at the Conference. The Belgian campaigns against the Arabs, briefly narrated in succeeding chapters, were only one phase of those multiform difficulties which beset the pioneer in savage lands where the heralds of civilisation find it necessary to suppress the old and impose a new order of life upon untutored human beings. ”

“ The friendly relations between France and the Congo State, the settlement of northern boundaries along the Mbomu, and the lease of the Bahr-el-Ghazal from Great Britain, have dispelled much Belgian anxiety. The question which now appears to forebode difficulty is what the Belgians believe to be Great Britain’s scheme for a pretext to break the lease of the Enclave of Lado, a rich and prosperous territory in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, where the Belgians have established posts along the Nile as far north as Lado. ”

“ France knows how she has been drawn into an almost impossible situation in that wretched colony, she knows how difficult it is for her to cleanse and administer it upon lines which are in accord with the obligations imposed upon her by the Berlin Conference. If France and Belgium together could be persuaded to transfer the whole, or the greater part, of French and Belgian Congo to Germany, a comparatively quick route to the ocean would be possible for the upper reaches of the Congo basin. ”

“ In spite of legal quibbles, it is an insult to common sense to suppose that the responsibility for the Congo has not always rested with Belgium. The Belgian machinery was always ready to help and defend the State, but never to hold it in control and restrain it from crime.
[Pg viii] One chance Belgium had. If immediately upon taking over the State they had formed a Judicial Commission for the rigid inspection of the whole matter, with power to punish for all past offences, and to examine all the scandals of recent years, then they would have done something to clear the past. ”

“ All these have to be constantly replaced by inexperienced men, with their job to learn. What wonder then that grievous mistakes are sometimes made by some of these untried men, necessarily placed in responsible positions? In writing this letter to you, I state only my own experience and opinion of the spirit and effect of Belgian administration in the district of Katanga; but it seems natural to me to suppose that the same spirit extends throughout the whole of the Congo territory ”

“ The fears excited by this letter that King Leopold desired to restrict Belgium’s liberty of action in the Congo State when the latter should become a Belgian colony were not diminished by the announcement in November 1906 of four new concessions, conferring very extensive rights on railway, mining and rubber companies in which foreign capital was largely interested. ”

“ While the business brigade of the anti-Congo campaign sought to enlist the aid of the German Chambers of Commerce, the humanitarian scouts developed the atrocity theme—not so much against the French Power as against the Belgian pigmy. Belgium and the Congo Free State cannot resort to the arbitrament of that force which as a last resort decides the contests of all nations. ”

“ My experience of the last two years has convinced me that in the district of Katanga at any rate the Belgian officials endeavour to treat the Central African native with justice and leniency, and in as great a degree as officials [Pg 437] of any other nation look on him as a human being, with a perfect right to sell his labour and his food on terms satisfactory to himself. ”

“ Civilisation did carry the day. And has not history to register that this victory for the Congo State, due to the bravery of Belgian officers, entitled it to merit well of those interested in the fate of the native populations? If to-day there opens for them a new era of liberty and regeneration, if [Pg 205] the amelioration of their material and moral condition can now be pursued, they owe it to the annihilation of the promoters of slavery.
Elsewhere has been told at the price of what sacrifices of men and money, at the price of what valour in every case, these results have been attained. ”

“ As in the Congo Free State, the bulk of the French Congo forests are full of rubber vines and trees. Emulation and envy were aroused in French colonial circles by the prodigious development in rubber exports from the Congo Free State. French finance was excited by the wild wave of speculation in Congo rubber shares which swept over Belgium, and by the prodigious profits of the great Belgian Concessionaire Companies. ”

“ Today's civilization is moving into the Congo, and the wild animals—antelope, zebra, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and gorilla—are slowly disappearing, except in the game reserves, and the natives are being taught modern farming methods.
The Belgian Congo was first opened to Europeans by Henry Morton Stanley, the American newspaper man—the same Mr. Stanley who said, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume." To most people, the Belgian Congo would not be considered a very pleasant place to live, but it is an interesting place for Bleep...Squeak...and Scratch...to visit. ”

“ The Congo Free State, covering a million square miles, that is, as large as India, and containing a population supposed to exceed forty-two millions, was committed by Europe to his charge in absolute sovereignty, and at first there appeared to be no resistance. Steamers and telegraphs and stations are trifles to a millionaire, and there were any number of Belgian engineers and young officers and clerks eager for employment. The weak point of the undertaking, inadequate resources, soon, however, became patent to the world. ”

“ These firms had, however, very little direct trade with the interior of the Congo Basin, commerce in their early time being confined to the coast. Trade with the interior is almost entirely due to the Belgians.
Before the Free State was founded the trade of Central Africa was chiefly in slaves. As a Belgian writer quaintly observes, the slave was at once the means of labour, the main capital, the vehicle of transport, the common currency, and the usual tribute given to satisfy the covetousness of native chiefs. The slave was the standard of wealth and the element of power. ”

“ They add millions of acres to our territory and 3,000,000 healthy and prosperous natives to our population. These new possessions have two distinct advantages. One is that they provide an invigorating health resort which will be to the Central Congo what the Katanga is to the Southern. The other is that, being an immense cattle country—there is a head of live stock for every native—we will be able to secure fresh meat and dairy products, which are sorely needed.
"The Congo is not only the economic hope of Belgium but it is teaching the Belgian capitalist to think in broad terms. ”

“ No one wishes to utter a word which can be construed as a threat, but every one knows that there are paths along which no British Foreign Minister can lead, much less force the nation.
BELGIAN CONGO
Belgian Congo figures largely in every proposal for a rearrangement of the map of Africa. It is claimed that Belgium has annexed more territory than she can safely administer; certain it is that in annexing the Congo she did not take over an ordinary colony. When Great Britain assumed responsibility for her African colonies their virgin wealth was practically untapped ”

“ Probably the only way out of the present slough of despond is the definite assumption of sole responsibility by the Belgian people; for it should be remembered that a very large number of patriotic Belgians urgently long to redress evils for which they feel themselves to be indirectly, and to a limited extent, chargeable. At present, those who carefully study the evidence relating to the Berlin Conference of 1885, and the facts, so far as they are ascertainable to-day, must pronounce the Congo experiment to be a terrible failure. ”

“ I do not pretend that all is perfect at Congo. It certainly commits errors sometimes, but truth compels me to state that the Government seeks only to redress them, and to punish those who have been guilty of it. The Belgian officers do not use their men brutally at will as Captain Salusbury has affirmed. Indeed, the soldiers are much attached to the greater number of their white chiefs, and the latter [Pg 347] can confidently count on their courage and devotion in time of war. ”

“ Leopold II.'s eyes were opened by the great African discoveries of 1878 to the possibility of realizing an ambitious scheme for acquiring in his country's interests a vast territory in the centre of the Dark Continent. Amid general scepticism, and aided by a mere handful of men, mostly officers, he had built up the independent state of the Congo. From 1895 onward the Belgian Government had associated itself in his work by opening credits to him, although Parliament remained hostile to the King's bold and enterprising policy. Belgian finance, however, took an interest in affairs on the Congo ”

“ Within three days’ steam of the Congo, the British colony of the Gold Coast has solved the question of labour, has started an industry which gives the native producer a return of over a million and a half sterling per annum, has provided the European consumer with a great cocoa area which twenty-five years ago produced little beyond internecine warfare and jujus, and yet the Belgian Government has never even given a practical consideration to this unique example of colonial expansion which could so easily be applied to the Congo. ”

“ Baron Lambermont (Belgium) presented a report upon the best means of safeguarding the welfare of the native races, treating with remarkable ability of slavery, the importation of alcohol into the Congo country, and other dangers that threaten uncivilised races at their first contact with civilisation. Count Van der Straeten Ponthoz (Belgium) spoke even more vigorously to the same effect, and between them these two Belgian subjects of King Leopold showed themselves more solicitous for the welfare of the Congo native than the representative of any other nationality present. ”

“ Spontaneous initiative, timely energy, unremitting labour, these appear to be the characteristics of Belgian dominance in Congoland. Having regard to the habit Europeans have of considering [Pg 276] Americans the great exemplars of an age of materialism and hustle, there is almost an element of humour in the fact that one of the first Congolese companies formed under the ægis of the Free State was founded by an American, General Henry S. Sanford, sometime United States Minister at Brussels. ”

“ The chief function of most Belgian officials in the Congo is to preside at what is technically known as a "palaver." This word means conference but it actually develops into a free-for-all riotous protestation by the natives involved. They all want to talk at the same time and it is like an Irish debating society. ”

“ I will read a line or two from this statement: “As for his accusations,”—that is, Captain Salusbury’s accusations against the Congo State and the Belgian officers who employ him,—“they fail from the outset. It is without any compulsion that the natives enlist in the public forces. The harvest of ivory and caoutchouc gives rise to no atrocity. ”

“ The treaty, as amended, was approved by the Belgian parliament in the session of 1908. Thus the Congo state, after an existence of 24 years as an independent power, became a Belgian colony. (See CONGO FREE STATE.)
The area of the Free State, vast as it was, did not suffice to satisfy the ambition of its sovereign. King Leopold maintained that the Free State enjoyed equally with any other state the right to extend its frontiers. His ambition involved the state in the struggle between Great Britain and France for the upper Nile. ”

“ Reports of a British Consular Officer, and of King Leopold’s Belgian Commission. Action of the British Government. Serious accusations of oppression and barbarity in the exploiting of the natural wealth of the so-called Independent Congo State, under the administration of its royal proprietor, King Leopold, of Belgium, were beginning to be made a dozen years ago, as will be seen by reference to the subject in Volume VI. of this work. The King and the companies which operated in the region under his grants were reputed to be taking enormous profits from it. ”