Some interesting correspondence on the subject of the Congo Free
State and King Leopold's Commission appears in the Times of Tuesday. M. Carl Herrmann, the secretary of the "Federation for the Protection of Belgian Interests in Foreign Countries," attacks the Congo Reform Association's protest, summarised in our last issue, as "the outcome of imaginations enfevered by the hatred and envy" provoked by the Congo State's prosperity. He contends that the character and antecedents of the Commissioners fully meet the suggestions put forward in Lord Lansdowne's despatch of June 6th, and asserts that the "broad and liberal spirit" of the instructions given to them entirely disposes of the charge that the Com- mission is controlled by the Congo Government. He also accuses the missionaries of the Balolo Mission of having "sneaked off" as soon as they were invited to attend in Brussels and give evidence before the Commission ; and asserts that the Congo State has always observed the Berlin Act, which needs neither interpretation nor correction. Per contra, Mr. Fox-Bourne points out that, however anxious the Commissioners may be to do their work properly, they are employes of the Congo State. With regard to the alleged "sneaking off" of the missionaries, he explains that such short notice was given that it was impossible for them to visit Brussels before the Commission left for Africa, but that arrangements have been made for the tendering of similar evidence by persons on the spot at Boma. Meantime Mr. Morel, secretary of the Congo Reform Association, furnishes details of the systematic persecution — amounting to a deliberate plan of starving them out—to which it is alleged the British missionaries at Baringa are subjected by the' Congo State officials. It is only right to add that in Friday's issue of the Times every single one of Mr. Fox-Bourne's statements is categorically denied by M. Herrmann.
Previous page
