The Brussels correspondent of the Times sends news to Friday's
paper of a new development in the negotiations between the Belgian Cabinet and King Leopold as to the annexation of the Congo. On Thursday M. Schollaert laid before the Chamber a new Act supplementary to the Treaty of last November. We cannot pass judgment on this supplementary Act till we know its terms in full ; but it professes to make it possible for the State to take over the Crown domain " without the necessity of purchase." This is a pleasing phrase, as the purchase-money the State would have been obliged to pay under the original Treaty would have crippled its power for good in the Congo ; but we are alarmed at the conditions under which there is "no necessity for purchase." In receiving the Crown domain as a present the State will take over all the liabilities, including the annual charges on revenue which were earmarked by the King; it will pay fifty million francs to the King as a mark
of gratitude and for the furtherance of benevolent objects, and forty-five million more to carry on works in Belgium to which the King has devoted part of the profits from his Congo estate. Altogether, Belgium will apparently be called on to pay some hundred million francs. It must not be forgotten that no transfer of the Congo Free State can be voted until it has been approved by the Powers whose action created that State. The duty of standing by this right will not, we feel sure, be overlooked by our Government.
