The crime of the Congo

SAN IEGOCALIFORN AMIVERS TY OF 3 1822017304312 The Crime oftheCongo By ma A.ConanDoyle * of the AuthorComplimentsSAN D EGOUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 31822017304312 r Centra! University Library of SanCalifornia,University Diego Please Note: This item is to recall.subject Date Due 2 r MAR 2 2 Cl UCSDLb.39(7/93) oTHE CRIME OF THE CONGOThe theCrime of Congo By A. Conan Doyle Author of The Great Boer etc.War, etc., New York &Doubleday, Page Company McmixALL RIGHTS INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATIONRESERVED, INTO FOREIGN THE SCANDINAVIANLANGUAGES, BY DOUBLED PAGE & COMPANYCOPYRIGHT, 1909, AY, PUBLISHED, NOVEMBER, 1909 BY A. CONAN DOYLECOPYRIGHT, 1909,PREFACE are of us in who consider the crime whichTHERE Englandmany in the lands ofhas been wrought Congo by King Leopold Belgium followers to be the which has ever been knownand his greatest human annals. I am of thatin Personally strongly opinion. have been like that of the NormansThere great expropriations or of the in Ireland. There have beenin England English of like that of the South Americans themassacres populations by or of nations the Turks. But never beforeSpaniards subject by such a mixture of wholesale andhas there been expropriation massacre all done under an odious ofwholesale guise philanthropy with the lowest commercial motives as a reason. It is thisand cause and the unctious which makes this crimesordid hypocrisy in its horror. unparalleled The witnesses of the crime are of all and there is nonations, possi- of error facts. There are British consuls likeconcerningbility Mitchell and all in theirCasement, Thesiger, Armstrong, writing official with detail of fact and date. There are French-everycapacity men like Pierre Mille and Felicien both of whom have Challaye, books the There are missionaries ofwritten upon subject. many Weeks and Stannard Clarkeraces Morrison,Harris, (British) ; and Father Ver-and (American); Sjoblom (Swedish)Shepherd the There is the action of the Italianmeersch, eloquentJesuit. who refused to allow Italian officers to beGovernment, employed in such and there is the of thehangman's work,any longer report the evidence before which wascommission,Belgian suppressed it was too dreadful for there is the incor-because publication; finally, evidence of the kodak. American citizen who willAnyruptible at Mark Twain's will see someglance "King Leopold's Soliloquy" of that. A of all of these sources of informationsamples perusal will show that there is not a obscene or ferocious torturegrotesque, which human could invent which has not been usedingenuity against these harmless and helpless people. This to warrant our intervention in case.mind,would, my anyiv PREFACE has several times been interfered with on theTurkey simply general of There is in this instance aground humanity. very special reason America and should not stand and seewhy England by these done to death. in a their wards.They are, sense,people America was the first to official togive recognition King Leopold's in and so has the ofenterprise 1884, responsibility having actually him into that which he has so abused.put position dreadfully She has been the indirect and innocent cause of the whole tragedy. some is due. On the other handSurely reparation England with the other the ofhas, Powers,European signed treaty 1885, and all of them make it forwhich each theby responsible The other Powerscondition of the native races. have so far to live to this But theshown no desire conscienceup pledge. andof is she is herself to act.England uneasy slowly rousing Will America be behind? At this moment two American and that noblecitizens, Shepherd are about to be tried at Boma for theMorrison,Virginian, telling truth about the scoundrels. Morrison in the dock makes a finer of than Bartholdi's in New York harbour.Statue Liberty will be made in America the has its(forAttempts Congo paid to that wants to ousteverywhere) pretend Englandapologists Belgium from her and take it herself. Such accusations arecolony folly. To run a without the natives iscolony honestly enslavingtropical an For the nearestprocess. example Nigeria,expensive English has to be subsidized to the extent of a Who-$2,000,000colony, year. ever takes over the its demoralizedCongo will, considering present have a certain of a forcondition, $10,000,000expense year twenty has not run the It has sackedyears. Belgium colony. simply it, the inhabitants without to of value toforcing pay ship everything No decent Power could do this. ForAntwerp. European many to come the will be a and it willyears Congo heavy expense truly be a call the next owner. I trust it will not fallphilanthropic upon to England. therehave been made too is considerable(forAttempts ingenuity unlimited on to that it aand the other isside)money pretend question of Protestant missions Catholic. one who thinks this against Any should read the "La of the andbook, Question Kongolaise," eloquent Father Vermeersch. He lived in the as heholy Jesuit, country and, it was the of the "immeasurable which drove himsays, sight misery," to write.