3 AUGUST 1912, Page 12

THE LUST OF CRUELTY.

[To THE EDITOR OP TEE "SrscrAToa.-] Ein,—Your correspondent, Mr. Livingstone-Learmontb, has not been as careful a reader of your paper as he thinks. I have not got a file by me, but if I had I could easily give instances where equally drastic action was urged in the case of Portuguese slavery on the Congo as you are 'now advocating in the Putnmayo affair. For one thing, I distinctly recall your insisting, at least twice, that the British Government should send a gunboat to the Congo to prevent the slaves being carried from the mainland to the cocoa islands in the event of the Portuguese Govern- ment refusing to deal with the traffic in human lives. So that his castigation of you for what he believes to be your

inconsistency is unjust.—I am, Sir, &c., B.