The Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.

My Dear Mr. Reid: I inclose a copy of the English text of the bill for a colonial law now under discussion by a special committee of the Belgian Parliament.a

It seems to me that the enactment of this law would be a most unsatisfactory conclusion of the effort to redress and prevent for the future the outrages which have been committed on natives of the Kongo region under the control of the King of Belgium.

You will see that practically the only attempt at any check upon the absolute power of the King is under a colonial council, which, under the nineteenth article of the proposed law, is to be nominated by the King himself. This is mere trifling with the people who have been justly dissatisfied with the conduct of affairs in the Kongo.

I wish you would talk informally with Sir Edward Grey on this subject and ascertain whether, in case this bill becomes a law and the effort of Belgium ends there, Great Britain will accept such a result as being satisfactory performance of the trust which was committed to the International Association of the Kongo under the Berlin convention of 1885. I can not believe that he will consider that the duty of Great Britain, the performance of which she assumed by that convention, will have been discharged by an assent to such a disposal of the matter.

You may say to Sir Edward Grey that the United States * * * are, however, gradually coming to a frame of mind in which we are disposed to consider the further continuance of the conditions which have existed in the Kongo as being a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Brussels convention of 1890, which, in its second article, expressly includes among its objects—

To diminish intestine wars between tribes by means of arbitration; to initiate them in agricultural labor and in the industrial arts, so as to increase their welfare; to raise them to civilization and bring about the extinction of barbarous customs. * * * To give aid and protection to commercial enterprise; to watch over their legality by especially controlling contracts for service with natives, and to prepare the way for the foundation of permanent centers of cultivation and of commercial settlements.

Faithfully yours,

Elihu Root.
  1. Printed, p. 810.