The full text of the latest scheme of reforms put
forward by the Congo Free State has been published, and the worst fears of the critics of that administration have been realised. It will be remembered that the Commission of Inquiry recom- mended certain reforms; but King Leopold did not choose to act upon them, and appointed a new Reform Commission to report upon their findings ant prepare a scheme. The result, approved by King Leopold, is analysed by M. Cattier, the distinguished Belgian jurist, in a document published in the Times of Tuesday. State exploitation is still to be left in its entirety ; native " sentinels " remain, though in future they will be arm( d only with muzzle-loading guns; forced labour is maintained ; the Doinaine de la Couronne is untouched ; no proper balance-sheets are to be published, and the old bad system of spending profits from the Congo on Belgian objects is defended. The recommendations of the original Commission of Inquiry were scarcely adequate to the evil, but they were stringency itself compared with the new proposals. Moreover, the evidence of the first Commission and the complete Report of the second have not been published, and the scheme we have at present may be taken as a ukase of King Leopold. In the glue-book issued on Monday Sir Edward Grey criticises severely the findings of the Commission of Inquiry. We do not doubt that the latest scheme, together with the extraordinary claim of King Leopold as to his rights under the Berlin Act, will meet with equally stringent criticism and opposition from his Majesty's Government.
