[42] Italics by the author.
[43] See Appendix.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE NEMESIS OF LIBEL
On Friday, the 25th of March, 1904, in the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, London, the case of Captain Henri Joseph Leon De Keyser, and his colleagues-in-arms, Commandants Chaltin and Dubreucq, against Captain Guy Burrows, an Englishman, one time in the service of the Congo Free State, and his publishers, Messrs. R. A. Everett & Co., London, came on for trial before Mr. Justice Ridley and a special jury.
The trial of this action for libel is the first which has, so far, been determined against those who are charged with traducing the men whose courage in, and devotion to, the Congo cause has erected a prosperous State in the heart of savage Africa. The case irradiates much that has been long proceeding in Great Britain, and that has recently received significant impetus in the United States through the action of certain persons operating from the city of Boston.
The author has no acquaintance with any of the parties to this case, but deems it incumbent upon one who essays to write a full history of the Congo Free State to include an account of litigation which in its proceedings and result reveals and explains many things with which the present work will not otherwise specifically deal.
Belgian officers brought this action against an English officer, whom they charged with libel and attempted blackmail, before a British jury. Captain Guy Burrows, the defendant, had published a book containing false statements of atrocities in the Congo. He had followed the Liverpool and Boston custom of attributing villainy to the officers of the Congo State Government. But unlike the Liverpool and Boston general allegations, Captain Burrows attributed the wrongful acts to Captain De Keyser and Commandants Chaltin and Dubreucq. What the Court thought of the case as it sensationally unfolded itself may be gleaned from the observations and summing up of Mr. Justice Ridley. What the jury felt is indicated in its verdict for damages against the defendants in all the cases.
To ensure the fairest statement of this interesting and informing suit, the following quotations, verbatim et literatim, are taken from a stenographic report of the trial.
There was a fine array of learned counsel on both sides, among whom Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., Mr. J. Eldon Bankes, K.C., and Mr. Lewis Thomas (instructed by Messrs. Bird, Strode & Bird, solicitors) appeared for the plaintiffs; Mr. Crispe, K.C., and Mr. Swanton for the defendant Burrows; and Mr. Germaine, K.C., and Mr. G. A. Scott for the defendants, Messrs. R. A. Everett & Co.
Defendants’ counsel opened the case by asking leave of the Court to withdraw his clients’ plea of justification, by which, in popular terms, he stated that Captain Burrows was unable to prove any of the monstrous accusations he had made against Captain De Keyser and his colleagues, in the book which contained the libels complained of. After this dramatic collapse of previous pretence, Sir Edward Clarke proceeded with the case as follows: