“No—but I profited by the method in which the rubber was obtained. I don’t want to harrow your feelings, but I tell you that every pound of rubber that has come from the Congo has been and is being produced by the wholesale murdering and torturing of the natives,” Gaunt said solemnly.
“You use the present tense. Surely now that the Congo has been taken over by Belgium, things are better?”
“Not one whit—and they never will be better so long as a Belgian remains in power.”
“But the new King. He is of good repute, and——”
“The new King will not have the slightest power to alter the conditions. Years of rapine and murder have reduced the Congo to such a state that the present methods must continue. The alternative is bankruptcy,” Gaunt answered.
There was horror on Drake’s face, and his lips were pressed into a straight line.
“When the Belgian government took over the Congo,” Gaunt continued, “they gave a pledge that the condition of the natives should be improved immediately. I have means of obtaining information of what is really taking place, and I saw that they have no intention of relinquishing their methods of obtaining rubber by murder and torture. But they have promised to open the Congo to the trade of the world in three stages. That is, they have divided the country into three portions. The first is to be opened out in a few months, but I may say that that portion is one that has already been devastated by murder and the land has been depleted of its one valuable product—namely, rubber. A year later a second portion is to be thrown open—by that time it will be in the same state as the first.”
“It is dastardly,” Drake broke in angrily.
“No date has been given as to the opening out of the third portion—and for a good reason—the country is practically untouched, and they propose first to exhaust it by their usual methods. When the country has been drained dry—when the Belgians have earned their millions, then, and not till then, will they admit the foreigner.”
“Do you mean to say seriously that now—at this moment, the Belgians are collecting rubber in the same way as they did in the past?” Drake asked in a whisper.