www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
continued...
Part II - Murder for Money: Congo, 1st Genocide of the 20th Century
(Bertrand Russell)
Enormous pains were taken to keep secret the large-scale systematic
murder by which the royal capitalist obtained his profits. The officials and
law-courts were both in his pay and at his mercy, private traders were
excluded, and Catholic missionaries silenced by his piety. Belgium was
systematically corrupted, and the Belgian Government was to a considerable
extent his accomplice. Men who threatened disclosures were bought off, or, if
that proved impossible, disappeared mysteriously. The only men in the Congo
who could not be silenced were the Protestant missionaries, most of whom, not
unnaturally, supposed that the King was ignorant of the deeds done in his
name. To take one instance out of many, Joseph Clark, of the American Baptist
Missionary Union, wrote on March 25, 1896:
This rubber traffic is steeped in blood, and if the natives were to rise and
sweep every white person on the Upper Congo into eternity there would, still
be left a fearful balance to their credit. Is it not possible for some
American of influence to see the King of the Belgians and let him know what
is being done in his name? The Lake is reserved for the King – no traders
allowed – and to collect rubber for him hundreds of men, women, and children
have been shot. [Morel, op. cit., p. 54.]
But it was easy to suppose that the missionaries exaggerated, or that these
were merely isolated instances of officials who had been turned to cruelty by
fever and solitude. It seemed incredible that the whole system was
deliberately promoted by the King for the sake of pecuniary gain. The truth
might have remained long unrecognized but for one man – E. D. Morel. Sir H.
H. Johnston, an empire-builder untainted with eccentricity, thoroughly
familiar with Africa, and originally a believer in King Leopold, after
describing his influence in stifling criticism throughout the civilized
world, says:
Few stories are at once more romantic – and will seem more incredible to
posterity – than that which relates how this Goliath was overcome by a David
in the person of a poor shipping clerk in the office of a Liverpool shipping
firm which was amongst the partners of King Leopold.
This shipping clerk – E. D. Morel – was sent over to Antwerp, and
Belgium generally, because he could speak French, and could therefore arrange
all the minutiae of steamer fares and passenger accommodation, and the scales
of freights for goods and produce, with the Congo State officials. In the
course of his work he became acquainted with some of the grisly facts of
Congo maladministration. He drew his employers’ attention to these stories
and their verification. The result was his dismissal.
Almost penniless, he set to work with pen and paper to enlighten the
world through the British press and British publishers on the state of
affairs on the Congo. [Op. cit., p. 355.]
>From that day to the moment of his death, Morel was engaged in ceaseless
battle – first against inhumanity in the Congo, then against secret diplomacy
in Morocco, then against a one-sided view of the origin of the War, and last
against the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles. His first fight, after
incredible difficulties, was successful, and won him general respect; his
second and greater fight, for justice to Germany, brought him obloquy,
prison, ill health, and death, with no success except in the encouragement of
those who loved him for his passionate disinterestedness. No other man known
to me has had the same heroic simplicity in pursuing and proclaiming
political truth.
Morel’s difficulties in the Congo Reform agitation were such as most men
would have found overwhelming. The French, impressed by the magnitude of
Leopold’s profits, had established a very similar system in the French Congo,
where it was producing the same results; they were, therefore, by no means
anxious that the world should know the inevitable consequences of his
economic methods. The British Foreign Office, needing the friendship of
France and Belgium for reasons of high politics, was very loath to be
persuaded, and at first suppressed consular reports tending to confirm the
accusations of Morel and the missionaries.
The Roman Catholic Church – acting, according to Morel, under orders from the
Vatican – represented that the whole movement for reform was a disguised
attack upon Roman Catholicism emanating from the Protestant missionaries; but
later, when the evidence proved irresistible, this defence was abandoned.
King Leopold and his agents, of course stuck at nothing in the way of
vilification and imputation of discreditable motives.
Nevertheless, Morel and the Congo Reform Association succeeded in rousing
public opinion, first in England, and then throughout the civilized world.
The British Government was forced to admit that the accusations had been
confirmed by our Consuls, especially Casement (who was hanged during the
War). The King, to keep up the pretence that the atrocities had occurred
against his wishes, was compelled to appoint a commission of three impartial
jurists to investigate the charges, and, although he published only a
fragment of their report, what was allowed to appear made it evident that the
charges were well founded. At last, in 1908, Europe, using the authority
conferred by the Berlin Congress, deprived him of the Congo and handed it
over to Belgium, on the understanding that the King’s system of exploitation
should cease. By this time King Leopold had come be to avoided by his brother
monarchs, on account both of his cruelty to negroes and of his kindness to
ballet-girls.
Against King Leopold, it was possible for the conscience of mankind to be
victorious, for he was, after all, a minor potentate. Against France,
agitation has proved powerless. Except in the coastal regions, from which
travellers are not easily excluded, large-scale atrocities occurred, and
probably still occur; but “an impenetrable mist still lies upon the forest
.” [Morel, The Black Man’s Burden (1920), p. 147.] - Bertrand Russell
Reprinted here For Fair Use Only. (C) The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation.
The above text is reprinted from theWebsite of one Rae West at
http://www2.prestel.co.uk/littleton/brfobcon.htm#st . The following are some
of Mr. West's comments:
"Booklets published by the Congo Reform Association are available in the
British Library. I was surprised to see how much of the work seems to have
been done by women.
"There's some irony in Russell's distinction between 'savages' and the
'civilized world': I don't think he ever considered whether survival in
dangerous and unhealthy regions of Africa didn't, in fact, require
considerable skill. He used the same word 'savages' in his Autobiography,
which was written/revised when he was in his 90s. It's possible that the word
was meant in the sense of being wild or unplanned, rather than in the
technical sense of 'uncivilised' or the other senses suggesting cruelty or
unsociability—his History of Western Philosophy has a passage stating in
effect that modern techniques wouldn't permit people to survive in small
groups.
"Russell seems never to have revised his views of the various imperialisms,
or attempted to seriously weigh evidence, always for example regarding the
British Empire as benevolent, and the Russians as barbaric; perhaps similarly
with regard to earlier epochs he seems never to have encountered views
seriously anti-Norman Conquest or anti-Spanish in South America, or
pro-Attila or pro-Genghis Khan.
"Casement also investigated and reported on Catholic atrocities in Peru. He
appears to have been targeted with a 'dirty tricks' campaign, involving a
supposed diary of his, but I'm uncertain whether it was shown to be forged."
***
If you find emperors-clothes.com useful, we can use your help...
All our expenses are covered by individual donations. Any donation will help
with our work. To use our secure server, please click here or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/howyour.htm.
Or you can mail a check to Emperor's Clothes, P.O. Box 610-321, Newton, MA
02461-0321.
Or call 617 916-1705. Thanks very much.
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
_______________________________________________
CrashList website: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
