We have received a copy of a Memorial on the
rights of the Belgian Congo natives to own land which Mr. E. D. Morel has
presented to Sir Edward Grey. Under the old administration in the Congo Free State the beneficiaries were, as is well known, King Leopold of Belgium, in both his personal and autocratic aspects, and numerous concessionnaire companies. King Leopold as a private person claimed the produce of the soil in the "Crown Domain," and rendered no account of his profits; and as autocratic ruler of the Congo Free State he claimed the produce of the soil in what was known first as the "Private Domain" and later as the "National Domain." The profits of the National Domain were used for forcing the administrative system on the country, and the profits of the companies, of course, went to the shareholders. The point of Mr. Morel's Memorial is to prove, first, that the transfer of the Sovereign's privileges to the Belgian Government has in no sense altered the principle of the administration under which the natives were deprived of their lands ; and secondly and chiefly, that the right of the natives to own their lands (which, of course, is denied in effect by the Belgian Govern- ment, as it was denied by the old autocratic Administration) is capable of historical demonstration.
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