File No. 1806/668.
Minister Bryan to the Secretary of State.
Brussels, March 18, 1910.
Sir: Concerning the Kongo and the affairs at this capital affecting the former Free State I have the honor to report that the optimistic views expressed in his dispatches on this subject by my predecessor, Mr. Wilson, seem fully justified. There evidently prevails throughout Belgium universal and determined public opinion set on ameliorating the conditions which have existed in the African domain. The recent visit of King Albert and of Mr. Rankin, minister of the colonies, to Africa have so thoroughly familiarized the Sovereign and his able adviser with the needs of the Kongo that they are competent to intelligently follow their policy of reform and to fulfill the pledges made to the people. Just now, however, danger for the realization of these plans lies in their multiplicity. There is perhaps a little overzeal, and the desire to accomplish too much at once may retard rather than advance the general program. All sorts of measures are proposed for the development of the Kongo. The following is an outline of the program of the Belgian Government in this respect:
commercial regulations.
- I.
- To entirely throw open to trade in July, 1910, about one-half of the Kongo, and the remainder of the territory in the months of July of 1911 and 1912.
- II.
- To grant the natives in districts thus opened to trade the right and liberty to gather and sell to merchants the products of the soil just as though these products virtually belonged to them.
- III.
- To encourage trade by reducing charges on commercial enterprises and by facilitating the purchase by the latter of lands in the Kongo.
- IV.
- To establish new navigation companies on the principal waterways.
- V.
- To introduce—for which provision is made in the present budget—money into the Kongo.
- VI.
- To grant to officials subsistence allowances in place of the former payment in kind, thereby compelling them to purchase what they need instead of having to levy taxation.
taxes on natives.
- VII.
- On July 12 throughout the Kongo the taxes in labor are to be suppressed.
- VIII.
- After July 12 taxes per head are to be revised.
- IX.
- All those now subjected to the corvée—forced labor on public works—shall have to complete their term of service, but in order to eventually suppress this forced labor their places will be taken, as their terms expire, by hands voluntarily engaged.
This new system is said to be already in vigor in the first section of the Great Lakes Railway of the Belgian Government. In a recent speech in the British Parliament, Sir E. Grey, minister for foreign affairs, commenting upon this program, stated that it does not apply to the concessions areas. The Belgian Government takes the stand that the concessionary companies have no right to forced labor and are examining what arrangements can be made to introduce this reform into the administration of these companies.
King Albert is studious, careful, and conscientious. His ambition is to build on the foundation laid by his predecessor a colonial edifice which will remain as a lasting monument to his statecraft and philanthropy. If he has the patience and the masterful strong will of his uncle, the great King Carol, of Roumania, whom he resembles, Kongo will be wrested from savagery and become an empire such as England has founded on every continent and as Holland and Portugal possessed when their navies ruled the seas. The colonial minister of Belgium is an earnest man of such value that he has captured the respect of the radical opponents of the present Government. The tatter’s majority in the chamber of representatives having gradually dwindled from 60 to 4, it is of vital moment that the new colonial policy be promptly carried out. Otherwise the radicals will gain enough seats in the spring elections to upset the present ministry of the conservative or “Catholic” party, which has been in power for 28 years.
I hope in a few days to furnish the department with a more definite and detailed account of the laws enacted and of the status of proposed legislation affecting the Kongo. The sessions of the colonial council, which decides all questions relating to the Belgian provincial possessions, sits with closed doors. Merely a meager resume of its proceeding is issued for publication. There are, however, legitimate means, of which I intend to avail myself, of obtaining exact information concerning the deliberations of this body and its decisions, so vitally interesting to all who look to the Kongo as a future field of business activities.
I have, etc.,