SF.rlEMBER 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



469 



tion of which are acknowledged by its subjects, under which 

 reforms are willingly approved by the government, voted with 

 enthusiasm by the assemblies, and applied in good faith. 



The instructions given by the government to its agents are 

 expressed and reiterated in peremptory terms. Their execution 

 is closely watched. Reprimands have been administered to cer- 

 tain agents who had accepted payment of taxes in rubber, the 

 natives having offered tliem in that form. 



energy to the study and the treatment of trypanosis in said 

 laboratory. Amongst the 29 lazarets established by the govern- 

 ment, some are managed by missionaries and are entrusted to 

 graduated religious nurses especially trained for that purpose. 



Missionaries, planters and merchants freely distributed all 

 over the territory, mold public opinion, and under this efficacious 



Unpacking Rubder Preparatorv iu Tk.mjim,. 



Numerous Europeans of various nationalities have already 

 taken advantage of the new regime to settle in various points of 

 the country. Nearly 200 sales or leases of crown lands have 

 already been granted. Moreover, five important concessions were 

 granted, as per agreement of April 14, 1911, to Messrs. Lever 

 Brothers, Ltd., of Port Sunlight, for the working prin- 

 cipally of oil factories. Messrs. Lever Brothers are well known 

 for their extensive business and the philanthropic and social 

 manner in which they carry on their work wherever they settle 

 themselves. They are obliged by the government to establish in 

 each concession a school and a lazaret. 



On the other hand, the religious missions are spreading and 

 rapidly accomplishing their occupation of the land. They have 

 every support from the Belgian Government, which has been 

 Catholic for the last 27 years. 



The Protestant missions possess 46 establishments in the 

 Congo, and since the reforms, eight sales or leases of crown 



IvoRV AND Rubber Caravan. 



control is the methodical application of the reforms brought 

 about. 



This is not the work of a day, and no government with com- 

 mon sense would think of upsetting the whole interior economy 

 of an immense territory by transforming its whole administration 

 with a touch of the magic wand. Precautions had to be taken ; 

 gradual transitions had to be arranged, and experiments had to 

 be made. A whole staff permeated with other ideas, and accus- 

 tomed to other waj-s, had to be rallied, instructed and directed, 

 and that at enormous distances. It was therefore decided to 

 proceed gradually in the work of reorganization. The ordinance 

 of March 22, 1910, divided the colony in three zones, whose 

 transition to the new methods had to be brought about from 

 year to year. The first zone was opened to free trade on July 

 1, 1910. This zone alone comprises three-fifths of the territory. 

 Its area is three times that of the United Kingdom. It spreads 

 over the whole southern half of the colony, and almost com- 



RUBBER CaRAV.VN. 



lands have been negotiated with them. Catholic or Protestant, 

 they all work with zeal to educate the native children ; they are 

 mighty assistants to the State in their unsparing efforts to fight 

 the plague of sleeping sickness. 



All are requested to send delegates to the Leopoldville's 

 bactereological laboratory. Traveling and all other expenses 

 are paid by the government to missionaries who devote their 



Native Dug-out Containing a Rubber Caravan. 



passes the whole. The reforms have thus been applied to all the 

 districts in contact with neighboring colonies, as soon as they 

 were enacted. 



The second zone was opened July 1, 1911. It comprises 

 the whole centre of the colony — its richest districts in rub- 

 ber — the domain of the old Crown Estate. 



Finally, the third zone, which comprises the north of the terri- 



