No. 29.
Mr. Tree to
Mr. Bayard.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Brussels, January 6, 1888.
(Received January 17.)
No. 289.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your instruction No. 90, of the 7th ultimo, on the subject of the wrongs
inflicted on the American Baptist Missionary Union in the double seizure of
their boat by Henry M. Stanley and the authorities of the Congo State, as
alleged in the letter of the Rev. A. Biliington, to which I have delayed
responding more promptly in-order that I might send you the answer of the
administrator-general of the department of foreign affairs to the note which
I addressed to him immediately after receiving the instruction.
I have the honor to transmit herewith the correspondence I have had with that
official on the subject, which I hope will meet with your approval.
The explanations seem to be satisfactory. Mr. Van Eetvelde declares that his
Government entirely disapproved of the arbitrary conduct of Mr. Stanley, and
states that it is in possession of evidence which relieves its agent at
Stanley Pool of the imputation of covertly favoring Stanley’s project to
take possession of the boat against the will of her owners.
As to the second cause of complaint, the taking possession of the Henry Reed by armed soldiers under the command of
Captain Yan Gele on her way back to Stanley Pool, Mr. Van Eetvelde explains
that it was done under a misunderstanding that his Government regrets, and
the consequences of which it hastened to repair. It appears, as he explains,
that Captain Yan Gele had previously made several voyages in the boat at
times when she was in the service of the State under contract of hire; that
he was ignorant of the circumstances under which the boat had been put at
the service of the State, and seeing her passing Equator station under
command of an officer of the Congolaise navy, he wrongfully thought himself
authorized to make use of her.
It is alleged by Mr. Yan Eetvelde that the governor-general, as soon as he
was informed of the fact, ordered the restitution of the boat,
[Page 30]
which was done on the 10th of August
last, and that the complainants have been indemnified for the injuries which
have been occasioned to them on liberal terms, including the expense of
hiring for the whole period of the absence of the boat up to the day of her
final surrender.
I have, etc.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 289.]
Mr. Lambert Tree to
the general administrator of the department of
foreign affairs and of justice of the Independent State of the
Congo.
Legation of the United States,
Brussels, December 23,
1887.
Sir: In accordance with instructions from my
Government, I have the honor to bring to your attention a case of
flagrant wrongs which are said to have been inflicted upon the American
Baptist Missionary Union, composed of American citizens, and engaged in
missionary work in the Congo Free State, by officials of the State.
It appears from a letter addressed by the Rev. A. Billington,
representative of the union at Stanley Pool, to the American consul at
St. Paul de Loando, a copy of which I inclose herewith, that the union
owns a small steamer on the waters of the Upper Congo, called the Henry Reed, for the purpose of conveying
missionaries and their goods to its stations. That in April last Mr.
Henry M. Stanley arrived at Stanley Pool and applied for the use of the
steamer, but that the circumstances of the missionaries were such that
they could not do as they wished; that he, Stanley, thereupon, in the
most arbitrary and lawless manner, attempted to take the steamer by
force, by placing an armed band at the entrance of the mission station
and another at the place where the steamer was at anchor, and then, sent
a letter demanding the instant surrender of the steamer. In case of
non-compliance his officers had orders to enforce the demand at any
risk, either to Mr. Billington or those concerned; that before anything
was done the chief of the station of the Congo Free State, at Stanley
Pool, protested against Mr. Stanley’s action in the name of the State,
and the armed forces were withdrawn. The chief of the station then
applied for the steamer, but the circumstances remaining unaltered the
missionaries were obliged to refuse its use. That it, however, became so
clear to them, from conversations and correspondence, that the steamer
would be taken, that they ultimately handed her over to the authorities
of the Free State, under protest, for Mr. Stanley’s use for the space of
forty-five days.
Thus it appears that while the chief of the station ostensibly protested
against the threatened violence of Stanley, as evidenced by his posting
an armed force at the entrance to the mission and another at the place
where the steamer was at anchor, and his, unwarranted and insolent
demand for the instant surrender of the private property of these
missionaries, yet it is entirely apparent, from the statement of Mr.
Billington, that he aided and abetted Stanley in his lawlessness, and
that these missionaries were obliged to deliver their property up to the
authorities of the Free State for the use of Stanley because they could
not help themselves.
But another and still more serious and flagrant wrong to these
missionaries by persons connected with the Government of the Congo Free
State remains to be stated.
It seems that the steamer was kept considerably beyond the forty-five
days by Mr. Stanley, and then when she had been sent away by him to be
returned to the owners, the American Baptist Missionary Union, she was
seized before reaching Stanley Pool by another officer of the Free
State.
This seizure was made at Bangala by Lieutenant Vangele. This officer, it
appears, first applied for the use of the steamer of the English Baptist
Mission, she being there at the time, but on being refused he at once
marched twenty armed soldiers on board the Henry
Reed. His action was protested against by some of those in
charge of the steamer, but without effect, and up to the 3d of August,
the date of the letter, she had not been returned to her owners.
Assuming the facts to be correctly stated, and there seems to be no
present reason to doubt that they are, I desire most earnestly to
remonstrate, in the name of my Government, against the arbitrary and
lawless acts of interference with the enjoyment of the rights of private
property by the persons connected with the Government of the Independent
State of the Congo, as indicated by the circumstances I have
detailed.
The Government of the United States could not fail to regard with
profound regret and displeasure such abuses of the rights of any of its
citizens in the Congo Free
[Page 31]
State
by officials of the State, and especially in the case of the unselfish
and self-sacrificing men who, braying the dangers of climate and the
privations incident to a savage and unsettled country, have posted
themselves there as aids of humanity and religion. No settlers could be
more valuable to the government of the new country in its efforts to
spread the blessings of civilization, or are entitled to greater
protection and more tender consideration at the hands of the
governmental authorities, than the brave and single-minded men and women
who are occupying the field of the Congo State as missionaries, and no
missionaries more than these who go from America, They go from and are
citizens of a country whose Government was the first to recognize the
Congo flag, and which has been unfaltering in its sympathy and aid
towards the establishing of a liberal and civilized government in that
remote quarter of the world.
I am instructed to ask that the Government of the Independent State of
the Congo will immediately take steps to cause the restoration of the
steamer in question to her legitimate owners, the American Baptist
Union, at Stanley Pool, and that the Government will cause a searching
investigation to be made of the arbitrary acts said to have been done in
this regard by the authorities of the State.
Also that a prompt and effective reparation be made for any injury done
to the owners by reason of the forcible seizure of the steamer.
I avail, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No.
289.—Translation.]
Mr. Van Eetvelde to
Mr. Tree.
Independent State of the Congo,
Department of Foreign
Affairs,
Brussels, December 31,
1887.
Mr. Minister: You have kindly, in your letter
of the 23d of this month, addressed me a complaint of which your
Government had been notified by missionaries of the American Baptist
Missionary Union, concerning the detention in the waters of the Congo of
their boat, the Henry Reed.
I hope by some explanations to be able to show in some measure, Mr.
Minister, that the facts to which you call my attention constitute much
less a well-founded point of grievance against my Government, as they
were produced under circumstances entirely exceptional, and as the
injury to which they gave rise has been already repaired to the
satisfaction of the complainants.
It will not be useless to recall, in the first instance, that Mr. Stanley
undertook his last journey to Africa, not as representing the State of
the Congo, but as chief of an expedition, organized by an English
committee with a view of carrying succor to I Emin Pasha, whose position
in the Soudan had awakened the sympathies of the civilized world.
By reason of the philanthropic and urgent character of his mission, the
explorer I had the right to count on the active co-operation of our
authorities. Thus you will not be surprised, Mr. Minister, that when on
its arrival at Stanley Pool the expedition found itself in the face of
difficulties, the commissaire of the district, Mr. Liebrechts, felt
himself obliged to lend his good offices. And these difficulties were
grave—a famine reigned in the district. The provisions there scarcely
sufficed for the ordinary needs of the population, and the only means of
saving a disaster to the numerous caravan of Mr. Stanley—nearly a
thousand men—was to put him in the way of continuing sooner his journey.
In the presence of this situation, Mr. Stanley was obliged to endeavor
to procure all the means of transport then available at the Pool.
No aid was refused to him; the Baptist Mission alone did not accord the
use of its boat, although its refusal was of a nature to put in danger
numerous human lives and to compromise the fate of the enterprise.
Perhaps in view of this consideration it is permitted to judge with less
rigor the arbitrary proceedings to which your countryman had instant
recourse in order to arrive at his ends. My Government does not for an
instant approve them, nor still less share the responsibility. Its
agent, far from having favored or tolerated them, put an end to them as
soon as they had been brought to his knowledge. On this point we have
the satisfactory testimony of the complainants themselves.
The matter was finished by a contract signed at the intervention of the
authority according the use of the boat for a term of forty-five days.
Mr. Billington claims, it is true, now, to have subscribed to this act
only because of the ambiguous attitude of the commissaire of the
district, and in order to avoid graver disagreements.
[Page 32]
My Government believes itself justified in repelling the imputation with
which this functionary is charged. His conduct, in my opinion, has been
what it should have been, frank, benevolent, and dictated by the sole
desire to conciliate individual conveniences with the necessities of a
difficult situation; that it had no other character appears from the
letter even of Mr. Billington, of which I herewith annex a copy, making
known to the authority his determination to cede the Henry Heed. And besides, would it be permitted to suppose for
a single moment that missionaries would have taken with bad grace and
under protest a resolution to which was attached the success of an
enterprise which by its humanitarian end responds so well to their own
aspirations, and on which certainly depended the existence not only of
the column of Mr. Stanley, but also that of all the inhabitants of the
district? My Government does not think so.
As to the second fact that you have described to me, the detention of the
same boat by the orders of Captain Van Gele, it is the result of a
misunderstanding that my Government regrets and of which it has hastened
to repair the consequences.
The Henry Reed had been previously hired to the
State. Mr. Van Gele had used her to accomplish several voyages of
exploration. He was ignorant of the new conditions on which the boat had
been placed at the disposition of the State, and seeing her passing
Equator Station under the command of an officer of our Navy, he wrongly
thought himself authorized to make use of her. The governor-general, as
soon as he was informed of the fact, ordered the restitution of the
boat; which was done the 10th of August last, as is attested by the
acknowledgment of the surrender, which was signed the same day.
I will add, Mr. Minister, that the complainants have been indemnified for
the injuries which have been occasioned to them, the expense of hiring
having been liquidated on the liberal conditions of the agreement for
the whole period of the absence of the boat up to the day of her final
surrender.
The explanations into which I have just entered indicate, Mr. Minister,
that the State of the Congo is conscious of the duties incumbent upon it
with the respect to every enterprise for the advance of
civilization.
I can give the assurance that it will not fail in its task, that it will
not forget the sympathies which have been expressed to it by the United
States at the time of its foundation, and that it will continue, as in
the past, to surround with its solicitude the works of missionaries.
They, on their side, should not forget that it is not possible for them
to serve more efficiently their noble cause than by giving to the State
a loyal concurrence, and in co-operating in works which tend to the
progress of civilization.
They know, for the rest, that if they believe themselves injured, it
belongs to justice to state their grievance, and that they will find
always in the tribunals of the State the protection to which they have
the right.
Please accept, etc.,
The general administrator of the department of foreign affairs,
[Inclosure 3 in No. 289.]
Mr. Billington to
Lieutenant Liebrechts, April 24,
1887.
American Baptist Missionary Union,
Stanley Pool, April 24, 1887.
Dear Sir: Judging from our conversation of last
evening it is evident that there was a misunderstanding in our letters
of yesterday.
I now write to say that owing to the present very peculiar circumstances
I have decided to assume responsibilities and powers I do not really
possess, and hand over to the Congo Free State the steamer Henry Reed, in accordance with a mutual agreement
to be drawn up and signed on the morrow.
It appears to me only just and right that our society would be in some
way protected in case of the loss of the steamer, and I ask you again to
do your best to obtain the guaranty mentioned yesterday.
Should you still fail in this matter the arrangement aforementioned will
of course still go forward.
If you will appoint a time on the morrow I will call on you, or you may
prefer to call here.
Believe me, etc.,
[Page 33]
[Inclosure 4 in No. 289.]
Mr. Lambert Tree to
the general administrator of foreign affairs and of
justice, of the Independent State of the
Congo.
Legation of the United States,
Brussels, January 5,
1888.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
reception of your esteemed note of the 31st ultimo which I have
carefully read.
No purpose, however philanthropic or praiseworthy, which Mr. Stanley had
in view, as the commandant of a private enterprise, could justify or
excuse his arbitrary and violent acts in attempting, with the aid of an
armed force, to seize and appropriate the private property of persons,
without their consent, which he found within the limits of the Congo
Free State, and I felt confident that the Government of the State would
strongly disapprove of such conduct.
I am glad to know that your Government is in possession of evidence which
relieves its agent at Stanley Pool from the imputation of covertly
favoring Stanley’s project to take possession of the boat against the
will of her owners.
I feel assured that my Government will learn with sincere satisfaction
and pleasure that the subsequent seizure of the boat by Lieutenant Van
Gele was made under a misapprehension as to her having been hired by the
State, and that she was still in its service; that the Government of the
State, as soon as it learned of the fact, ordered her restitution to the
owners, which was done; and that the complainants have been liberally
indemnified for the injury which had been occasioned to them.
I profit, etc.,
