The story of the Congo Free State

by Henry Wellington Wack

The Heads of expeditions and Commissioners of Districts are personally responsible for the conduct of any Negro posts under their orders. They would be guilty of a very serious offence if they gave these detachments any duties other than those defined above, and if they did not constantly supervise them and immediately repress all abuses coming under their notice.

REPORT OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE COMMISSION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIVES, HELD AT LEOPOLDVILLE ON MAY 17, 1897. PRESENT, THE REVEREND FATHER VAN HENCXTHOVEN, DR. SIMS, AND THE SECRETARY, MR. GRENFELL

In the absence of Mgr. van Ronslé, the Rev. Father van Hencxthoven was elected President for the sitting.

Seeing that the members of the Commission live far apart, and in view of the difficulty of all the members meeting, it was decided that three members should form a quorum.

The members of the Commission found that from the date of the constitution of the Commission, so far as their personal experience went, the laws of the State had been duly administered with a view to the protection of life and property, as well as to the well-being of the community. They found, further, that every case of injustice brought to the notice of the authorities had been immediately followed by measures of the most energetic description.

In the absence of Mr. Bentley, his Report was communicated to the Secretary. He writes that the Judge of the district where he resides, had, in each case notified to him, at once taken measures to punish the guilty, some cases having been settled satisfactorily, and the others being before the Court. The Judge informed Mr. Bentley that he would always be ready, on receiving a week’s notice, to go to Lutete, and try any case.

The members of the Commission, recalling the days of native rule, take this opportunity of recording their sincere appreciation of, and their gratitude for, the law and order introduced by the Independent State into the districts where they reside.

The members of the Commission also record with the deepest satisfaction their opinion that, as far as they know, the laws forbidding the introduction of alcoholic liquor for natives to the east of the River N’Kissi have been satisfactorily enforced. They consider the restriction of the zone up to the west of the River Kwilu as a really judicious and beneficent measure, and they trust that the Government will be as successful within the new limit as heretofore within the old.

The members of the Commission deeply regret that ordeal by poison is still practised over so great an extent of the country, and that its suppression is so difficult. In those districts which are more completely administered, ordeal by poison is practised in secret, owing to the penalties of the law, and the members hope that the same measures of repression will be taken in the interior districts as soon as the organisation of the Government allows of it.

The Commission desire to call the attention of the Government to the fact that all its members are chosen from the Stanley Pool district and below, and that no one has been chosen from the immense districts which are supposed to furnish the reason for the existence of the Commission for the protection of the natives.