BELGIUM AS A COLONIAL POWER.

[TO Tna EDITOR OM TIIR " ROTATOR.") SIR,—In view of the fact that the Belgian nation is now preparing to take over the government of the Congo Free State, it may interest some observers to have their attention called to a very remarkable book published in Brussels in 1899 to celebrate the opening of the Congo Railway the previous • year. This book is entitled "Lea Aptitudes Colonisatrices des Beiges," by the Baron Alphonse de Haulleville, with the secondary title " La Question Coloniale en Belgique." It was written apparently with the object of awakening the Belgian nation to the necessity for expansion.

The writer says :— "We have no colonies, and yet we absolutely cannot do without

them In preparing this work we have sought sincerely and ardently to carry out Plato's maxim, "rruth must be sought for with the whole heart.'"

To enforce his lesson the writer first reviews the history of the various primitive races who have colonised Belgium in early days, and then the colonial history of the various

European nations. He insists that— "It is not right, on the plea of a misplaced respect for the rights of the occupants, that industrious races should abandon rich territories to uncultivated and incapable native populations who will never turn them to account. To deny this right to civilised peoples would be to suppress all possibility of human progress. Irilligine what the world to-day would be without colonial expan- sion! If the Belgians had resisted their Monarch's enlightened leading, and had never set foot in Africa, and by their initiative given the impulse to the African movement, Islam—in other words, organised and irremediable barbarism—would .reign undis- puted over the centre of this continent, and would become a perpetual menace to Europe. But for our countrymen, the Arabs would now be canipiiig at Stanley Pool, perhaps even on the Atlantic shores; but for the French and Spaniards, Mohammedanism would be master of the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Guinea, and humanity would slide back six centuries. For a civilised nation it is not merely a right but a duty to turn to account those lands whose value is wilfully ignored by a careless and primitive people."

The writer, however, constantly contends that civilisation is not extermination, and regarding this point he utters some rather hard sayings about our own country. While he maintains that the English system of Crown Colonies (e.g., Basutoland) is the most admirable in theory that could be devised, he cites Sir Charles Dilke as saying: "L'Angleterre est In genie nation exterminatrice." The history of the Congo State during the ten years that have elapsed since this book was published affords rather a grim commentary on this and other sayings of the author. In another place be quotes

Rabelais:—

" Take notice that the proper way to retain and entertain countries newly conquered is not (as was the erroneous view of certain tyrannical spirits to their damnation and dishonour) pillaging the people, slave-driving, grieving, ruining, and ruling with rods of iron. Rather like new-born babes should you nourish and cherish them, rock and dandle them; like trees new planted should you prop and strengthen them, shelter them from all frosts, injuries, and calamities; like one recovering from a long sickness should you nurse, spare, and restore them."

M. de Haulleville next dwells upon the fact that, while the density of population in Belgium causes frightful poverty and suffering to the inhabitants, the Fleming has a rooted antipathy to emigration, seeking relief rather in Socialism.

The author points out that expansion should come first, inasmuch as the true Communism cannot be confined within the frontiers of a State, and quotes Herring (" Spirit of Roman Law ")

:- "The Indian sun does not shine for India only, but the inhabitant of the Northern clime has a right to the surplus of light and heat that Nature has lavished there. And the dweller in the Tropics too has a claim over the products of the Temperate

zone the results of its industries, its art, its science, and in all the blessings of religion and civilisation. No nation exists for itself alone The law of the division of labour also sways the life of nations It is by mutual help and

expansion that the individual imperfection of each nation is balanced and compensated. Perfection can only be brought out in their community—in the union of all."

Then, speaking for himself, M. de Haulleville emphasises the duty and necessity of sharing with subject-races the moral ideas which have made their conquerors what they are :— " We may for a moment do violence to an inferior race for the purpose of bringing them to a higher moral platform, but not (to quote Montaigne) pour is service de la inercadence et de la trafique. That would be an inexcusable crime. But to make the toilet of a soul takes longer with a savage than to dress his body, and thus become the client of the home manufacturers. It is for Govern- ments to keep within bounds the cupidity of the latter, and to watch over the uplifting of the inferior race. And to this end they have a powerful weapon ready to their hand. Evangelisa- tion, the preaching of religious truths, and of the strict code of duty which they enjoin, are not these the most perfect, the most efficacious means of spreading civilisation ? Was it not thus that civilisation came to us ? Hence the obligation resting on the home directors [of a colony] to facilitate and protect the develop- ments of missions. These will convert the primitive and savage aggregations of humanity into daughters of the parent organism. They will cement this social relationship by establishing between the members of this one family those cordial relations of which all the material benefit will be reaped by the trader. Colonisa- tion should be animated both by moral preoccupations and by the intention of making a profit. It must never lose sight of this double object ; and if one must absolutely take precedence of the other, it should be the former. Consequently, it is required that a colonising nation should possess at once a moral energy in the highest possible state of development and an overflowing com-

mercial and productive energy What tremendpus latent forces for colonisation must be possessed by Belgium, whose moral vigour is so great, and whose industrial productivity is so immense !"

Thus M. de Haulleville ten years ago. It remains to be seen whether Belgian colonial administration will bear out his