His Majesty’s Government desire, however, to express at once their great satisfaction at learning that the Congo Government concur in their view of the general principles which should prevail in dealing with the native African races, and at the announcement that a searching and impartial inquiry will be made into the allegations against the administration of the Free State, and that if real abuses or the necessity for reform should be thereby disclosed, the central Government will act as the necessities of the case may demand.
His Majesty’s Government have every confidence that an investigation of this character will be followed by the redress of any grievances or actual wrongs which may be proved to exist, and that if the present administrative system should be found to provide no adequate security against the abuse of power by those who are employed by the State, or by the Companies over which the State has control, the necessary steps will be taken to remedy these grave defects. His Majesty’s Government have been actuated in this matter by no other motive than a desire to arrive at the truth, and to fulfil the obligation which is incumbent upon all the Powers who were parties to the Berlin Act, “to watch, so far as each may be able, over the preservation of the native tribes, and to care for the improvement of the conditions of their moral and material well-being.” They are, therefore, glad to observe that the notes do not indorse the regrettable and unfounded insinuation contained in M. de Cuvelier’s communication of the 17th September, 1903, that the interests of humanity have been used in this country as a pretext to conceal designs for the abolition and partition of the Congo State.
The request made in the notes for the full text of Mr. Casement’s report raises a question of considerable difficulty.
Personal names and indications of place and date were suppressed, not from any want of confidence in the central Government at Brussels, but from the knowledge that if these particulars were published they would of course be accessible to the very officials in the Congo to whom abuses are attributed. The knowledge of these particulars would have given these persons opportunities for exercising pressure upon those who gave evidence, or for concealing the evidence of their own malpractices, so as to render impossible that effective inquiry which it is the object of the Congo Government to secure. These apprehensions appear, in some degree at least, to be borne out by the fact, mentioned in the “Notes” when quoting M. Bosco’s report, that those who gave evidence in the Epondo Case had taken flight, and that all efforts to find them had been fruitless. His Majesty’s Government are naturally desirous to further, so far as lies in their power, the inquiry which they are now assured will take place. They feel bound, however, to proceed on this point with the utmost caution, and, before considering whether they can hand over the complete text of the report, they must ask whether the Congo Government will accept full responsibility for the manner in which the information thus furnished is used, and whether they will communicate to His Majesty’s Government the measures which they are prepared to adopt and enforce in order to protect the witnesses, both European and native, from any violence or acts of retaliation on the part of those against whom they have given evidence.
With regard to the application, renewed in the “Notes,” for previous reports from British Consular officers, it is necessary to explain that these reports, though forwarding testimony upon which reliance could apparently be placed, were founded on hearsay, and lacked the authority of personal observation, without which His Majesty’s Government were unwilling to come to any definite conclusion unfavourable to the administration of the Congo State. Moreover, some of the reports are of old date; the Congo State have admittedly been very active in pushing forward occupation of the country, and it would be unjust to bring forward statements regarding a condition of affairs which may have entirely passed away. In the despatch of the 8th August, 1903, His Majesty’s Government explicitly declared that they were unaware to what extent the allegations made against the Congo State might be true, and it was in order to obtain direct and personal information as to the state of things actually existing that Mr. Casement undertook the journey of which the results are recorded in his report.
I request you to read this despatch to M. de Cuvelier, and to hand a copy of it to his Excellency. Copies will be transmitted to the Powers with which, as Parties to the Berlin Act, His Majesty’s Government have been in communication.
I am, &c.
(Signed) LANSDOWNE.
No. 3.
Acting Consul Nightingale to the Marquess of Lansdowne.—(Received May 3.)
(Extract.)
Boma, April 7, 1904.