The Casement Report 24

The Casement Report 24

The six natives brought before me at I** had all of them been wounded by

gun-fire, and the guns in question could only have come into the hands

of their assailants through the permission or the neglect of the

authorities. Two of these injured individuals were children--one of them

certainly not more than 7 years of age--and the other a child (a boy of

about the same age), whose arm was shattered by gun-fire at close

quarters. Whatever truth there might be in the direct assertions of

these people and their relatives, who attested that the attacks upon

them had been made by sentries of the La Lulanga Company, it was clear

that they had all been attacked by men using guns, which a law already

eleven years old had clearly prohibited from being issued, save in

special cases, and “to persons who could offer sufficient guarantee that

the arms and the munitions which should be delivered to them would not

be given, ceded, or sold to third parties”--and, moreover, under a

licence which could at any time be withdrawn.

 

Three of these injured individuals, subsequent to the initial attack

upon them, had had their hands cut off--in each case, as it was alleged

to me, by a sentry of the La Lulanga Company. In the one case I could

alone personally investigate--that of the boy I I--I found this

accusation proved on the spot, without seemingly a shadow of doubt

existing as to the guilt of the accused sentry. These six wounded and

mutilated individuals came from villages in the immediate vicinity of

I**, and both from their lips and from those of others who came to me

from a greater distance it was clear that these were not the only cases

in that neighbourhood. One man, coming from a village 20 miles away,

begged me to return with him to his home, where, he asserted, eight of

his fellow-villagers had recently been killed by sentries placed there

in connection with the fortnightly yield of india-rubber. But my stay at

I** was necessarily a brief one. I had not time to do more than visit

the one village of R** and in that village I had only time to

investigate the charge brought by I I. The country is, moreover, largely

swampy forest, and the difficulties of getting through it are very

great. A regularly equipped expedition would have been needed, and the

means of anything like an exhaustive inquiry were not at my disposal.

But it seemed painfully clear to me that the facts brought to my

knowledge in a three days’ stay at I** would amply justify the most

exhaustive inquiry being made into the employment of armed men in that

region, and the use to which they put the weapons intrusted to

them--ostensibly as the authorized dependants of commercial

undertakings. From what I had observed in the A.B.I.R. Concession it is

equally clear to me that no inquiry could be held to have been

exhaustive which did not embrace the territories of that Company also.

 

The system of quartering Government soldiers in the villages, once

universal, has to-day been widely abandoned; but the abuses once

prevalent under this head spring to life in this system of “forest

guards,” who, over a wide area, represent the only form of local

gendarmerie known. But that the practice of employing Government native

soldiers in isolated posts has not disappeared is admitted by the

highest authorities.

 

A Circular on this subject, animadverting on the disregard of the

reiterated instructions issued, which had forbidden the employment of

black troops unaccompanied by a European officer, was dispatched by the

Governor-General as recently as the 7th September, 1903, during the

period I was actually on the Upper Congo. In this Circular the

Commandants and officers of the Force Publique are required to

rigorously observe the oft-repeated instructions on this head, and it is

pointed out that, in spite of the most imperative orders forbidding the

employment of black soldiers by themselves on the public service--“on

continue en maints endroits à pratiquer ce déplorable usage.” Copy of

this Circular is appended (Inclosure 7).[19]

 

From my observation of the districts I travelled on in the Upper Congo,

it would seem well-nigh impossible for European officers to be always

with the soldiers who may be sent on minor expeditions. The number of

officers is limited; they have much to do in drilling their troops, and

in camp and station life, while the territory to be exploited is vast.

The ramifications of the system of taxation, outlined in the foregoing

sketch of it, show it to be of a wide-spread character, and since a more

or less constant pressure has to be exercised to keep the taxpayers up

to the mark, and over a very wide field, a certain amount of dependance

upon the uncontrolled actions of native soldiers (who are the only

regular police in the country) must be permitted those responsible for

the collection of the tax. The most important article of native taxation

in the Upper Congo is unquestionably rubber, and to illustrate the

importance attaching by their superiors to the collection and

augmentation of this tax, the Circular of Governor-General Wahis,

addressed to the Commissionaires de District and Chefs de Zône on the

29th March, 1901, was issued. A copy of that Circular is attached

(Inclosure 8).[20]

 

The instructions this Circular conveys would be excellent if coming from

the head of a trading house to his subordinates, but addressed, as they

are, by a Governor-General to the principal officers of his

administration, they reveal a somewhat limited conception of public

duty. Instead of their energies being directed to the government of

their districts, the officers therein addressed could not but feel

themselves bound to consider the profitable exploitation of india-rubber

as one of the principal functions of Government. Taken into account the

interpretation these officials must put upon the positive injunctions of

their chief, there can be little doubt that they would look upon the

profitable production of india-rubber as among the most important of

their duties. The praiseworthy official would be he whose district

yielded the best and biggest supply of that commodity; and, succeeding

in this, the means whereby he brought about the enhanced value of that

yield would not, it may be believed, be too closely scrutinized.

 

When it is remembered that the reprimanded officials are the embodiment

of all power in their districts, and that the agents they are authorized

to employ are an admittedly savage soldiery, the source whence spring

the unhappiness and unrest of the native communities I passed through on

the Upper Congo need not be sought far beyond the policy dictating this

Circular.

 

I decided, owing to pressure of other duties, to return from

Coquilhatville to Stanley Pool. The last incident of my stay in the

Upper Congo occurred on the night prior to my departure. Late that night

a man came with some natives of the S** district, represented as his

friends, who were fleeing from their homes, and whom he begged me to

carry with me to the French territory at Lukolela. These were L L of T**

and seven others. L L stated that, owing to his inability to meet the

impositions of the Commissaire of the S** district, he had, with his

family, abandoned his home, and was seeking to reach Lukolela. He had

already come 80 miles down stream by canoe, but was now hiding with

friends in one of the towns near Coquilhatville. Part of the imposition

laid upon his town consisted of two goats, which had to be supplied each

month for the white man’s table at S**. As all the goats in his

neighbourhood had long since disappeared in meeting these demands, he

could now only satisfy this imposition by buying in inland districts

such goats as were for sale. For these he had to pay 3,000 rods each

(150 fr.), and as the Government remuneration amounted to only 100 rods

(5 fr.) per goat, he had no further means of maintaining the supply.

Having appealed in vain for the remission of this burden, no other

course was left him but to fly. I told this man I regretted I could not

help him, that his proper course was to appeal for relief to the

authorities of the district; and this failing, to seek the higher

authorities at Boma. This, he said, was clearly impossible for him to

do. On the last occasion when he had sought the officials at S**, he had

been told that if his next tax were not forthcoming he should go into

the “chain gang.” He added that a neighbouring Chief who had failed in

this respect had just died in the prison gang, and that such would be

his fate if he were caught. He added that, if I disbelieved him, there

were those who could vouch for his character and the truth of his

statement; and I told him and his friend that I should inquire in that

quarter, but that it was impossible for me to assist a fugitive. I

added, however, that there was no law on the Congo Statute Book which

forbade him or any other man from travelling freely to any part of the

country, and his right to navigate in his canoe the Upper Congo was as

good as mine in my steamer or any one else’s. He and his people left me

at midnight, saying that unless they could get away with me they did not

think it possible they could succeed in gaining Lukolela. A person at

T**, to whom I referred this statement, informed me that L L’s statement

was true. He said: What L L told you, _re_ price of goats, was perfectly

true. At U** they are 3,000, and here they are 2,500 to 3,000 rods.

Ducks are from 200 to 300 rods. Fowls are from 60 to 100 rods. _Re_

“dying in the chains,” he had every reason to fear this, for recently

two Chiefs died in the chain, viz., the Chief of a little town above

U**; his crime: because he did not move his houses a few hundred yards

to join them to ... as quickly as the Commissaire thought he should do.

Second, the Chief of T**; crime: because he did not go up every

fortnight with the tax. These two men were chained together and made to

carry heavy loads of bricks and water, and were frequently beaten by the

soldiers in charge of them. There are witnesses to prove this.

 

Leaving the township of Coquilhatville on the 11th September, I reached

Stanley Pool on the 15th September.

 

I have, &c.

(Signed) R. CASEMENT.

 

 

Inclosure 1 in No. 3.

 

(See p. 29.)

 

_Notes on Refugee Tribes encountered in July 1903._

 

Hearing of the L* refugees from I*, I decided to visit the nearest

Settlement of these fugitives, some 20 miles away, to see them for

myself.

 

At N* found large town of K*, and scattered through it many small

settlements of L* refugees. The town of N* consists approximately of

seventy-one K* houses, and seventy-three occupied by L*. These latter

seemed industrious, simple folk, many weaving palm fibre into mats or

native cloth; others had smithies, working brass wire into bracelets,

chains, and anklets; some iron-workers making knives. Sitting down in

one of these blacksmith’s sheds, the five men at work ceased and came

over to talk to us. I counted ten women, six grown-up men, and eight

lads and women in this one shed of L*. I then asked them to tell me why

they had left their homes. Three of the men sat down in front of me, and

told a tale which I cannot think can be true, but it seemed to come

straight from their hearts. I repeatedly asked certain parts to be gone

over again while I wrote in my note-book. The fact of my writing down

and asking for names, &c., seemed to impress them, and they spoke with

what certainly impressed me as being great sincerity.

 

I asked, first, why they had left their homes, and had come to live in a

strange far-off country among the K*, where they owned nothing, and were

little better than servitors. All, when this question was put, women as

well, shouted out, “On account of the rubber tax levied by the

Government posts.”

 

I asked particularly the names of the places whence they had come. They

answered they were from V**. Other L* refugees here at N* were W**,

others again were X**, but all had fled from their homes for the same

reason--it was the “rubber tax.”

 

I asked then how this tax was imposed. One of them, who had been

hammering out an iron neck collar on my arrival, spoke first. He said:--

 

“I am N N. These other two beside me are O O and P P, all of us Y**.

From our country each village had to take twenty loads of rubber. These

loads were big: they were as big as this....” (Producing an empty basket

which came nearly up to the handle of my walking-stick.) “That was the

first size. We had to fill that up, but as rubber got scarcer the white

man reduced the amount. We had to take these loads in four times

a-month.”

 

_Q._ “How much pay did you get for this?”

 

_A._ (Entire audience.) “We got no pay! We got nothing!”And then N N, whom I asked, again said: