LET'[ IC RS TO Till E E l) [TO fl
BELGIUM AND THE CONGO.
I.TO TUX EorroR OF Till g..seserkros.”.1 SIR,—Until there has been opportunity to digest the annexes as well as the brief clauses of the Congo "Treaty of Cession," it would be premature to pass judgment on the Bill as a whole. But one thing there is which it would seem necessary to draw attention to. I observe a tendency in some quarters to congratulate Belgium on the prospect of taking over an enormous tropical dependency which manages to cover its expenses. How people can write these things, and imagine they are doing Belgium a service, passes my comprehension. The assets of the Congo State are its rubber "taxes," and the stocks and shares held by its "Government" in the con- cessionaire companies. But the maintenance of both at their present figure is wholly subject to the maintenance of the existing system. The amount obtained from taxation so-called is obtained by compelling the native communities of the Congo to labour in the forests all the year. To produce the " taxation " now acquired from the country the Congo native is a perpetual payer of taxes. That is his life. In other words, he is enslaved. Similarly, the fabulous profits obtained by the concessionaire companies ,which are merely farmers of taxes for the Government— are obtained in the same manner. There is no commerce, no trade. The raw material of trade has become the raw material of taxation. Now surely it is merely common-sense to appre- ciate that even were the " taxation " of the Congo native confined to its legal figure of sixty days per annum (a monstrous figure, when you realise that the taxpayer, being deprived of all trading rights, has no means of enriching him- self) as a result of Belgian annexation, the revenue derived from this " taxation " would fall by three-fifths; and, again, that if the native under Belgian rule once more becomes a trading being with the rights of a man, the fabulous profits of the concessionaire companies dwindle to normal trading profits, and the value of the stock depreciates proportionately Those who wish Belgium to annex without cost to herself are the worst enemies of the Belgian people, for they are encouraging Belgium to perpetuate the existing system of pillage and robbery under the Belgian flag.—I am, Sir, Sm., Congo Reform. Association, E. D. MoREL. 4 Old Hall Street, Liverpool.
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