The story of the Congo Free State

by Henry Wellington Wack

By these articles, and the good feeling that has since prevailed between the French and the Belgians, all matters likely to have caused dispute have been settled. A well-defined boundary has been laid down between the French possessions and the Congo State from the Atlantic to the Nile. If the King of the Belgians surrendered to France what others would have retained, it was so dealt with because of that wise political foresight which has characterised his Majesty’s diplomacy in other respects. The friendly relations between France and the Congo State, the settlement of northern boundaries along the Mbomu, and the lease of the Bahr-el-Ghazal from Great Britain, have dispelled much Belgian anxiety. The question which now appears to forebode difficulty is what the Belgians believe to be Great Britain’s scheme for a pretext to break the lease of the Enclave of Lado, a rich and prosperous territory in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, where the Belgians have established posts along the Nile as far north as Lado. As to Great Britain’s purpose in this connection there have been many recent signs.

The Old Covered Market at Boma.

CHAPTER XIX
THE BAHR-EL-GHAZAL AND THE NILE

In addition to the territories of the Congo Free State proper, the sovereignty of which is vested in Leopold II., King of the Belgians, and his successors, King Leopold holds on lease from Great Britain the Bahr-el-Ghazal up to 10° N. A treaty entered into between the Congo Free State and Great Britain on 12th May, 1894, determines the duration of this lease, and the extent of the territory to which it applies. The conditions are somewhat complicated, partaking in a measure of the nature of an exchange, the Congo Free State, by Article III., leasing to Great Britain a strip of territory between the lakes Tanganyika and Albert Edward.

To be more precise: In 1890 the Congo Free State despatched several missions to its frontiers, some of which penetrated the Nile region and made various political arrangements with the ruling chiefs there. It happened also at that period (July, 1890) that Germany and Great Britain entered into an agreement whereby Germany acknowledged the paramount influence of Great Britain in the Nile Basin. This agreement was no sooner concluded than Great Britain opened negotiations with the Congo Free State, offering to grant thereto, on lease, certain territories situated west of the Basin of the Nile, if the Congo Free State would accord to Great Britain’s presence in the Nile Basin recognition similar to that which it had just obtained from Germany. Out of this overture grew the treaty of 12th May, 1894, between the Congo Free State and Great Britain, to which allusion has already been made.

By that treaty, Great Britain leases to Leopold II., King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Congo Free State, the territories limited by a line starting from a point situated on the west bank of Lake Albert Edward, south of Mahagi, to the point of intersection of the 30th meridian east of Greenwich, the frontier line of the territories so assigned following the head of the division of the Nile and Congo waters to the 25th meridian east of Greenwich; and along this meridian to its intersection with the 10th north parallel, and along this parallel direct to a point north of Fashoda; thence to the west bank of Lake Albert Edward, south of Mahagi. These territories comprise the entire basin of the Bahr-el-Ghazal River and its affluents (except the upper portion of the Bahr-el-Arab), and are generally referred to as the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The treaty further provides that the lease is to remain operative during the reign of King Leopold II. only, except as regards that portion of the Bahr-el-Ghazal west of the 30th meridian, permanently vested in the Congo Free State.

Commissariat of the District of Banana, 1893.

France, which had never recognised British influence in the Nile Basin, at once protested against this arrangement, asserting that Great Britain had leased territories which did not belong to her. While this delicate question was sub judice there arose the celebrated Fashoda incident which brought Great Britain and France perilously near to war. The circumstances of that incident are too near our own times, and too remote from the purpose of this book, to need recounting here. But it is important to refer to it in this place, because in the settlement of the Fashoda dispute between Great Britain and France the latter recognises the paramount influence of the former in the Basin of the Nile.