THE CONGO FREE STATE.
We have received a Bulletin Officiel issued by the Congo Free State defending the Administration from the charges brought against it, and a rejoinder from the pen of Mr. Fox Bourne. The beginning of the Bulletin looks like a claim for the State to be independent of the Berlin Conference, to have the right, if the vulgarism may be pardoned, "to wallop its own nigger." This is, doubtless, an outwork which there is no intention of holding; the real line of defence is the contention that the State has fulfilled the obligations imposed, by the Conference. We cannot deny that it uses the tuquoque argument with a certain force. It quotes, for instance, to Germany the statement of Governor von Liebert that" in principle there should only be left to the natives the lands of which thoy have absolutely need for their system of exchange," and, generally, gives chapter and verse for its own bold reading of "general opinion," that "the native has no real title to the ownership of this vast extent of territory which from time immemorial he has left waste." As to the promise of freedom of commerce we must own our- selves unconvinced. It seems, if we understand the Bulletin, that foreigners did not avail themselves of the liberty conceded, and that the State has "in the presence of the almost complete inaction of individuals sought to make valuable its territories by the aid of the exploitation of its domains." Foreigners may have feared the sort of welcome which was accorded to Mr. Stokes ; anyhow, it seems admitted that for some reason or other what would have been a field for general trade has become domain pried. If only the Congo Government could have given us a map with its free-trade and restricted-trade zones clearly marked ! The subject of the treatment of natives we must leave with the remark that the defence made by the Bulletin, is exceedingly vague. The accusations were not vague by any means; they gave name, place, and time.
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