Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1907, (In two parts), Part II
Minister Wilson to the Secretary of State.
Brussels, January 27, 1907.
Sir: In my No. 146, referring to a conversation with the King’s secretary, Mr. Carton de Wiart, re the department’s cablegram of January 15, I intimated that possibly His Majesty might think it fit to make some observations thereon, and that in such case I would at once transmit the same.
I have just received from Mr. Carton de Wiart a note—copy and translation of which is inclosed—together with a memorandum evidently drawn to meet the suggestions contained in the department’s cablegram. A copy and translation are transmitted herewith, together with a copy of the circulars and instructions therein referred to.
So far as I am able to judge from my knowledge of the Kongo question, the memorandum is a correct statement of the Kongo Government’s policy and of the workings of its administration. I consider it worthy of the department’s attention and study.
I have, etc.,
Palace of Brussels, January 25, 1907.
Mr. Dear Minister: I have the pleasure of sending you herewith the information suggested by our conversation of the other day.
Please accept, etc.
[Inclosure 2.—Translation.]
I. Following is a description of the manner in which the provisions of articles 2 and 5 of the act of Brussels have been realized in the Independent State of the Kongo:
Article 2 defines the role of the interior stations and crossings. Independently of their principal mission, which is to prevent the capture of slaves and to close the slave-trade roads, their object is:
1. To serve as points of refuge and aid to the population, to diminish the intestine wars between tribes, to instruct them in agricultural works and industrial art, and to bring about the suppression of barbarous customs.
Regarding the slave trade, it may be said that it exists no more. The destruction of the power of the Arab slave traders in 1892 and 1893 devolved on the state, then just organized, considerable sacrifices, but it has resulted in putting an end definitely to the chase and trade of human beings. In 1892 the Arabs covered the country from the Tanganyika to the Sankuru, and, masters of Nyangwe, Kassongo, Stanleyville, they found their way to the north near Bomokandi. This whole region was the field of their depredations, and at that time it was stated that the slave trade—with accompanying murders—made annually a million victims. At the beginning, the government assumed toward them an expectant and conciliatory attitude, nevertheless strongly organizing its military resources. It was very soon convinced, however, that persuasion would not induce them to adopt the ways of honest commerce; the Arabs attempted to force the military barriers adopted to restrain them, and the conflict was produced. It terminated with the taking of Stanley Falls, of Nyangwe, the rout of Rumaliza in Tanganyika, and the defeat of all the chiefs of any importance.
The effective occupation of all these posts by the forces of the Kongo State has rendered impossible a continuance of the régime of slavery. The influence of the victories of the state over the Arab traders has, in reality, reached far beyond our frontiers in wiping out the Arab organization which devastated not only certain parts of the Kongolese territory, but all Central Africa.
Relative to the point before mentioned of the subordinate duties devolving upon the stations, it may be said that they have been equally accomplished. It will suffice to call attention to the fact that 296 posts of the state have been distributed over all the territory which is actually occupied, in such way that efficacious protection is given to the population and internal wars between the tribes prevented.
Relative to barbarous customs, human sacrifices, mutilations, trials by poison, etc., not only have they been legally condemned by our penal legislation (decree of September 18, 1896), but in addition the organization of the state, the development of lines of communication, and the extensive exploration of the regions of the interior are in themselves certain factors for the extinction of these customs.
2 and 3. To give aid and protection to commercial enterprises, to maintain the observance of law in controlling particularly the contracts of service with the natives, and to establish permanent agricultural centers and commercial houses, as also to protect and to assist without distinction the missions founded or to be founded.
We must rely on statistics to prove the accomplishment of that part of the task assigned to the interior stations. If there are to-day, in the upper Kongo alone, 246 commercial houses and stations (the number of trading posts for the whole territory exceeding 500), and if the present existence there of more than a hundred permanent Catholic and Protestant missions is considered, it must be admitted that these different establishments exist because of the protection afforded them by the government posts. The control of relations between merchants and natives is provided for by the decree of November 8, 1888, which regulates contracts of labor.
4. To furnish sanitary service and hospitality and aid to explorers and to all those who aid in the work of wiping out the slave trade in Africa.
The state has organized medical service in all the districts. By introducing the study and practice of vaccination it has combated with success the spread of smallpox, and it at present combats the new disease of sleeping sickness, which desolates all of Central Africa; it will suffice to indicate here that by a decree of the 3d of June last a credit of 300,000 francs was made available for the study of the disease and a prize of 200,000 francs was established to be awarded to whomsoever should discover an effective cure therefor. It assists and subsidizes the missions or scientific institutions which are engaged in the [Page 804] study of this disease in the Kongo. There is in Brussels a school of medicine for tropical diseases which has just been created for the instruction and equipment of state physicians and more especially for their initiation in bacteriological processes. Relative to hospitality and assistance to be furnished to explorers and to those who combat the slave trade, it should be noted that the Anti-Slavery Society, established on the banks of the Tanganyika at the time of the Arab war, with the active support of the state, has worked with success in the extinction of the slave trade. The explorers and commercial agents, as well as the tourists and sportsmen of all countries, have always enjoyed the most generous hospitality in the Kongo, and recently many American citizens, notably Messrs. William Geil, Verner, Herbert Brigman, and Professor Starr, have stayed for long periods in different parts of the territory and have received every assistance.
The fifth article of the Brussels act provides that the different contracting powers shall make legal provision for the punishment of every kind of slave trading and of all attempts against personal liberty.
A report to the Sovereign King “on the legislation of the Independent State relative to the suppression of slavery and the protection of the black race,” published in the Bulletin Officiel of 1889, No. 11, pages 197 and following, recounts the penal provisions taken at that time for that purpose. The report says:
“All attempts against personal liberty will be considered as offenses punishable under the provisions of article 11 and following of penal code. Whomsoever, by violence or threats, has carried away or caused to be carried away, arrested or caused to be arrested in an arbitrary manner, imprisoned or caused to be imprisoned, any person, is punished (article 2); whoever sells any person into slavery is punished. By these general regulations the traffic, the transportation, and the detention of persons as slaves falls under the provisions of the penal law.”
Supplemental to these regulations, a decree of July 1, 1891, provides punishment, as required by article 5 of the Brussels act, for the capture, the conveyance, and the trade in slaves, the transportation and the concealment of slaves, the formation of organizations for the purpose of trading in slaves, all attempts against personal liberty, mutilations, etc., etc. A report was published in the Bulletin Officiel of 1895, pages 100 and following: “Relative to the measures taken by the Independent State in putting into effect the provisions of the Brussels act.” This report analyzes not only the legislation in the matter of the slave trade, but recites also the regulations established in the matter of introduction of arms and spirits, the application of the law in these matters being considered, in the act of Brussels, as closely connected with the measures taken for the extirpation of the epidemics which decimate the native population.
In these different directions the legislative system installed by the state has gone beyond the scope of the provisions of the conference, thereby assuming heavier burdens than any power holding possessions in Africa.
Recently, publications hostile to the state have attempted to place upon it the responsibility for the reappearance of the trade in slaves on the Tanganyika. According to the testimony of a Catholic missionary, certain merchants coming from a neighboring colony took back with them not only rubber, but also slaves bought from the native chiefs. It is not denied that cases of this kind occur; it would indeed be strange if caravans should not succeed in smuggling slaves as well as products, owing to the circumstances that they have in their employ numbers of employees. According to the statements made to the press by Monsignor Roelens, superior of the vicarage of the upper Kongo, this traffic is not made extensively, and in fact it has only been necessary for this prelate to indicate the evil to the central government at Brussels to obtain an order to organize an active guard to prevent its repetition. It is nevertheless very difficult to prevent some infractions of the law. It is to the interest of the state to apply all its resources to that task; moreover, since these infractions cover the odious traffic in human flesh—even though this traffic existed in infinitesimal proportions—all the efforts of the Government will be nevertheless directed to wiping it out, and it expects to succeed fully.
II. Relative to the “inhuman treatment inflicted on the natives,” the existence of which is affirmed by Senator Lodge in the motion submitted to the Senate at Washington, “ought to attract the attention of the civilized world and to arouse the indignation and compassion of the American people,” it may be positively affirmed that there does not exist any organized system for the maltreatment of the natives, though it may be admitted that there occur in the Kongo, as in all the countries of the world, even the most civilized, individual [Page 805] crimes; but whenever such crimes are brought to the knowledge of the judicial authority their authors are prosecuted in the courts, the practical development of the state having as its corollary the widening of its civilizing influence in the material and moral condition of the natives.
The report of the investigating committee has indicated the improvements which ought to be made in the condition of the natives. The suggestions of the investigating committee, the impartiality of which the most ardent enemies of the Kongo State are compelled to acknowledge, has been studied by an examining committee, whose proposals have been formulated in a series of decrees on June 3, 1906, and published in the Bulletin Officiel of the Independent State of the Kongo, 1906, No. 6. On the question of the reforms realized by these decrees, the chief of the British foreign office said to the House of Commons on July 5 last: “If they should be applied in good faith they may produce a great change; they may produce much good.” The state employs all its resources to effectually apply them. The circulars and instructions relative to the execution of the decrees of June 3, 1906, have been published in the Bulletin Officiel and this is the guaranty of the desire of the Government that the reforms referred to shall be carried out. A copy of these circulars is herewith inclosed.
All the arguments of the critics of the state consists of accounts that in certain villages the period of compulsory work exceeds forty hours a month. This can not be called inhuman treatment, and it would be better for the informants of the Kongo Reform Association, instead of agitating Europe, to bring the offenses to the attention of the local authorities, who, if the information is found to be correct, may be depended upon to punish them.
It may be affirmed that there are no instances of inhuman treatment in cases where the state is concerned. Relative to taxes, although the new decrees establish the principle that taxes are payable in money, it has been left to the choice of the natives to make payment in money, in work, or in products—in products in default of work, in money in a sum less than that paid in any African colony.
It is reasonable to suppose that so long as the circulating medium remains contracted and limited the greater part of the natives will elect to pay the tax in labor equivalent to the amount of tax in money. No one denies that this system is legitimate. The British minister for foreign affairs, at the session of the House of Commons referred to before, expressing his appreciation of the reforms initiated by the Kongo State, admitted that “if a native can not pay a tax and if his work is given to the state in lieu thereof, such labor may be properly termed a tax.” This system of paying taxes by labor exists, moreover, in all the African colonies, because the most of the laws recognize the fact that the native, since he is incapable of paying a tax in money, should have the right to assume other burdens in place thereof. The guaranties which surround the application of this labor tax are numerous; the amount of work is limited to forty hours per month, which is not excessive, according to the reports of colonial experts. Severe punishment is inflicted upon officials who overtax the natives. The governor-general is charged with the duty of approving the tax rolls. These tax rolls are public property, and every native may ascertain what he ought to pay and when. The interference of commercial agents in the levying of the tax is forbidden, and this work is performed only by official agents. The state inspectors have been instructed to pay especial attention to the labor tax and to secure good treatment to the natives. The methods to be employed against natives who refuse to pay their taxes are defined by law in precise terms and are limited to imprisonment, excluding corporal punishment. The laws say that in case of refusal to make payment of the tax by labor, those natives not possessing either goods or chattels may be compelled to discharge their obligations (article 54 of the decree of June 3, 1906). The punishment consists in imprisonment, during which the prisoner is required to work (article 55); the imprisonment shall not exceed one month (article 57), and it may not be put into effect except after two successive personal notices, each with fifteen intervening days (articles 58 and 59).
An accurate knowledge of the fiscal régime in force in the Kongo upsets absolutely the idea of inhuman compulsory labor or of the imposition upon the natives of cruel and unusual tasks. It is well known that the native always complains of the payment of taxes; the African negro is particularly indolent, and unless the law is made to harmonize with the theory of industry he will remain indefinitely in a condition of idleness and laziness, and would be an invincible obstacle to the introduction of civilization and the improvement of Africa.