456 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



a much more lurid description of the facts. I shall merely add one 

 sentence from Professor Cattier's famous volume upon the Congo which 

 was discussed in the Belgian House of Representatives, along with the 

 Report of the Commission. He says : 



The impositions in rubber and foodstuffs which weigh upon more than half 

 the territory, that is to say, over an area three or four times as large as France, 

 subject the natives to a well-nigh-continuous slavery, a slavery more severe than 

 that imposed by the Arabs. 



In 1908 the Congo was made over by King Leopold to Belgium, and 

 the transfer was recognized by practically all the Great Powers, except 

 Britain, who withheld her sanction till 1913. On May 29, 1913, Sir 

 Edward Grey announced to the House of Commons the intention of the 

 British Government to recognize the annexation of the Congo by Bel- 

 gium and said that they were now fully satisfied that the condition of 

 affairs had completely changed. While it shocks us that the atrocities 

 should have gone on so long, it is probably true that at no previous stage 

 in the world's history would the condition of uncivilized savages have 

 been so much a matter of concern to the millions who had no personal 

 interest in them. 



Atrocities have been reported in the Putumayo district of Peru on 

 the upper Amazon, some of the newspapers describing them as worse 

 than those on the Congo. This is probably an exaggeration, but there 

 have doubtless been very great cruelties inflicted upon the Indians there. 

 But as the matter has been the subject of investigation not only by 

 religious missions, but by a commission of the Peruvian government, as 

 well as by a British government commissioner and by a select committee 

 appointed by the House of Commons, it is to be hoped that the inhuman- 

 ity is now at an end. 



