The difference between the Congo system of colonisation and those of its principal critic is the difference between a definite State policy which, having the land and its resources for its material basis, applies humane measures for enforcing its development for the benefit and civilisation of the native, and the permanent constitution of the State, and a policy the baneful influence and unprogressive operation of which can be observed in the protectorates and colonies of one of its neighbours, where the budgets are to a large degree sustained by the importation of alcohol as a beverage—a “civilising influence” which, to the honour of the Belgians, is almost entirely excluded from the Congo Free State....
The foregoing exposition of internal policy may be regarded as a brief statement of the principles which underlie the system of government in the Congo Free State.
Treaty between Congo State and United States.
That the United States did not construe an illogical meaning into the phrase “freedom of commerce,” and warp it out of all semblance to its natural character, is evidenced by the terms of its treaty with the Free State made seven years after the promulgation of the General Act of the Berlin Conference, during all of which time the Congo State authorities had acted upon the interpretation of the phrase indicated in Baron Lambermont’s definition, and in the learned opinions of Maîtres Barboux, Nys, Van Berchem, and Picard.
Article I. of the treaty of April 2, 1892, between the United States and the Independent State of the Congo reads:
The citizens and inhabitants of the Independent State of the Congo in the United States of America and those of the United States of America in the Independent State of the Congo shall have reciprocally the right, on conforming to the laws of the country, to enter, travel, and reside in all parts of their respective territory; to carry on business there; and they shall enjoy in this respect for the protection of their persons and their property the same treatment and the same rights as the natives, or the citizens and inhabitants of the most favoured nation.
Students of the State Technical School, New Antwerp (Bangala).
Hospital, Boma.