JUSTICE—NATIVE CHIEFTAINCIES
A Difficult Problem.
To provide a just and equitable process for giving effect to the civil laws of a savage country requires an administrant force of exceptional powers, of rare patience, and of wide sympathies. Highly civilised communities largely govern themselves by the aggregate contribution and example of all orderly persons. The very momentum of their civilisation and the habits and tendencies of a cultured people conduce to the observance of law and the tranquillity of the social life to which the law applies. Rules of State and municipal procedure for the government of European countries have, by use and the experience of time, long ago attained to an automatic operation. The social phenomena of all civilised communities are well established, and they form part of that large body of academic theory called social science. The development of human society has its constitution and its philosophy, yet those who are charged, by a duty arising from exceptional circumstances, to apply social and political principles to savage tribes distantly situated from all civilising contact with human beings of superior attainment, are charged with a task of unknown and multiform difficulty.
Bishop’s Palace at Baudouinville (Oriental Province).
The characteristic thoroughness with which the Belgians have established their administrative machinery in the Congo Free State is apparent in the latest report (July, 1904) of Vice-Governor-General Fuchs, the acting head of that Government. Monsieur Fuchs has had twenty years’ experience in Central Africa. He is, perhaps, the best-qualified living colonial official dealing with the black races of the African Continent. The great progress of the country he governs, and the moral and material betterment of the tribes which thrive under his liberal rule, are astonishingly revealed in the report from which the following quotations are made:
The development of the State administration is attested in a general way by the ever-increasing number of Posts of different kinds that are in operation in its territories.
Thus there are at the present time 233 Posts and Stations, all of them under the command of white men, scattered over the 14 districts.
The European staff attached to the services of the districts mentioned is distributed as follows:
| Organic Staff | 294 |
| Service of Justice | 57 |
| Administrative Service | 115 |
| Medical Service | 27 |
| Service of Public Works | 92 |
| Service of Agriculture | 89 |
| Service of Finance | 74 |
| The Public Force | 490 |
| Service of the Marine | 166 |
| Various | 20 |
| Total | 1424 |
The number of blacks attached to the different services of the districts is about 20,000 men.
I here render justice to the zeal and devotion of the servants of the State; besides Belgians, who form the great majority, they also comprise Italians, Swiss, Scandinavians, Germans, English, etc., according to the following order:
Belgians, 898; Italians, 197; Swiss, 89; Swedes, 86; Danes, 34; Germans, 31; Norwegians, 22; Finns, 19; English, 16; Dutch, 9; Russians, 5; French, 4; Austrians, 3; Americans, 2; Turks, 2; Luxemburgers, 2; Portuguese, 2; Greeks, 1; Spaniards, 1; Cubans, 1; total, 1424.
To whatever nationality they belong they vie with each other in the ardour with which they perform their numerous duties. All are penetrated with the greatness of their rôle in the heart of savagery, and impelled by the noblest emulation compete in the gradual realisation of our civilising work. Numerous are the testimonies that I have collected during my last official tour of their fruitful activity exercising itself in all directions, of their protecting benevolence with regard to the natives; and these testimonies emanate from missionaries, from learned men, from travellers, and even from persons inclined rather to criticise than to praise our works.
In order that this staff may become more experienced, by acquiring progressively a knowledge of the country, its resources, and its inhabitants, it has been particularly recommended to the agents composing it that they should learn the native dialects. Knowledge of the local idioms is, indeed, indispensable to the European who seeks to enter into direct relations with the blacks—to study their manners and customs, and by that means take account of the measures to employ for the introduction and development of our ideas of civilisation.
The judicial statistics show the vigilance and impartiality with which the Parquet (Public Ministry corresponding to our Public Prosecutor) inquires into breaches of the law, no matter who their authors may be, and aims at allowing no offence to remain unpunished. If some faults have been committed by our agents, the guilty have been prosecuted conformably to the law.
The attention of the members of the service besides has been frequently called to the consequences which would result for them from transgressing the laws and instructions of the Government. In order to ensure their faithful and complete execution, the Government has just again added to the staff of superior officials new State Inspectors.