King Leopold and the Kongo.
By Editor
A despatch from Brussels dated November 13 declares that more and more the Belgians are convinced that the crime of the Kongo is the crime of King Leopold alone. How much money he has made out of the Kongolese no one knows. It is estimated, however, that his personal profits can not have been less than $50,000,000, before the Belgian government annexed the state and paid him $10,000,000 for his private territory. The Berlin Congress handed it over to him in 1885 for his administration. It was supposed at first that his rule over the natives was benevolent. He set aside out of the territory a tract more than ten times the size of Belgian containing the best rubber-vines in the Kongo, and every human being and every scrap of wealth in this vast domain were as much the king’s private property as his personal adornments. In 1903, however, Roger Casement, the British consul, let light in upon the question, and told of the terrible crimes that were committed against the natives in demanding so much rubber or loss of their hands. All this we have referred to before. We hope that the cruel reign is over, and that the Kongo natives have even now, in their stripped and barren country, opportunity to live in peace.