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I transmit for the information of the Congress a report by the Secretary of State, with accompanying correspondence, touching the condition of affairs in the Kongo.
WILLIAM H. TAFT
Note: This Message was accompanied by a copy of correspondence between the United States and its foreign representatives in London, Belgium, and the Kongo Free State, showing the attitude of the United States and Great Britain toward annexation by Belgium of the Free State, and also showing the views expressed by British, Belgian, and American officials with regard to the condition of the natives and the character of trade prior to the annexation. With regard to the former three American consular officials, after tours of inspection at different times during 1907-8, reported in substance that "the tendency of this system is to brutalize rather than civilize"; that the natives were virtually enslaved by the State under the pretense of conscription as rubber-gatherers; that, having performed his conscript service, the native's bondage was indefinitely prolonged by means of taxes payable in rubber; and that factory labor was procured by underweighing tax-rubber and sentencing the alleged delinquent to jail. With regard to trade, they characterized the Government as a monopoly protected from competition in every conceivable way by the laws of the country. The profits obtained by its European owners were secret, but the evils inflicted upon the country and the inhumanities practised on the natives were all too evident.
The Belgian officials denied the existence of any conditions either as regards trade or as regards the natives which could be rightfully construed as violating the Berlin act whereby freedom of trade was decreed, slavery abolished, and measures provided for the protection of the native. The British officials expressed views concurrent with those of the American consuls. American acquiescence as to annexation was shown to be conditioned upon reform in the Kongo.
Citation: John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=68484.
