The only obstacle in the way of the execution of the treaty of 12th May, 1894, was now removed, Great Britain’s right to dispose of the territories leased to the Sovereign of the Congo Free State being everywhere admitted. But now Great Britain herself sought, without justification, to annul the treaty. Because the Congo State had made therein certain reservations in regard to France—a perfectly natural proceeding at a period when the rights of Great Britain over the Bahr-el-Ghazal were in dispute—Great Britain contended that the treaty of 12th May, 1894, had practically lapsed. After the battle of Omdurman, the British even went so far as to give, in part, practical effect to this extraordinary view of their treaty obligations, occupying, upon several occasions, Meshra-er-Rek, at the confluence of the Bahr-Djur and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
From information which reached Europe and America early in November, 1904, it would appear that Great Britain has resolved to carry this matter with a high hand. A British expedition was said to be then in process of formation, composed of 2500 native troops, officered by Englishmen, to penetrate Central Africa, ostensibly to restore order among the Niam-Niam tribe.
Now the Niam-Niam tribe inhabit the Bahr-el-Ghazal country. That is one reason why Great Britain concerns herself with that tribe; but there is another, and a much stronger, reason. Recently it has been discovered that vast mineral wealth exists in that region, and Belgians, Frenchmen, Germans, and particularly natives of that country which “seeks no gold mines and seeks no territory,” have busily employed themselves in prospecting it. Trading relations have been established by small companies supposed to be engaged in exchanging fire arms and ammunition for ivory, but really prospecting for ore.
Side by side with this information comes the official announcement that the British Government has given orders, either directly or through a subsidised company, for the erection of a permanent telegraph connecting Khartoum with the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and that transport for traders up the White Nile is guaranteed as far as Fashoda. Already a section of the British newspaper press is advocating the establishment of British military stations and posts upon ground of which King Leopold holds a perfectly valid lease granted by Great Britain!
King Nekuku and his Suite at Boma.
Is it too high a flight of the imagination to suppose that the patience with which the British Government has listened to the libellous tirades against the Congo Free State, in the form of petitions to the House of Commons, is to be explained by its evident desire to cut loose from its treaty obligations, and forcibly take away what it voluntarily ceded to the Congo Free State for a valuable consideration?
CHAPTER XX
MUTINIES OF THE BATETELA TRIBE
The Batetela Grievance.
The hasty and ill-advised trial and execution of the chief, Gongo Lutete, described in another chapter, proved a source of much danger and tribulation to the Congo Free State. It was the act of a misguided and over-zealous officer, without doubt undertaken in good faith, but none the less disastrous upon that account. The incident has never been defended, but always deplored, by the Congo Government, to which it occasioned grievous loss in men, money, and reputation.