202 



CONGO FREE STATE. 



The tonnage entered at ports of the United 

 States in the foreign trade during the fiscal 

 year 1886 was as follows 



CONGO FREE STATE, a neutral state in Cen- 

 tral Africa, constituted under international 

 guarantees by the general act of the Congo 

 Conference, signed at Berlin on Feb. 26, 1885. 

 Conventions recognizing the sovereign rights 

 of the International Association of the Congo, 

 merged at the Berlin Conference into the Free 

 State, were concluded with Germany, on Nov. 

 8, 1884; with Great Britain, on Dec. 16, 1884; 

 with the Netherlands, on Dec. 27, 1884; with 

 France, on Feb. 5, 1885 ; and with Portugal, 

 on Feb. 14, 1885. The powers, at the Inter- 

 national Conference, undertook to respect the 

 neutrality and inviolability of the Free State, 

 and declared its territories and the rest of the 

 basin of the Congo to be free to the trade of 

 all nations. They reserved the right to decide, 

 until the end of a period of twenty years, 

 whether they would agree to the continuance of 

 freedom of entry. The navigation of the Congo 

 was placed under the direction of an Interna- 

 tional Commission, representing all the powers 

 signing the act, The sovereign of the Free State 

 is King Leopold of Belgium, who was author- 

 ized to accept that quality and title by vote of 

 the Belgian Parliament on April 28 and 30, 

 1885. Belgium and its Government have no 

 power or responsibility in relation to the Congo 

 State. The central government has its seat at 

 Brussels, and consists of the King of the Bel- 

 gians and the heads of the three departments 

 of Foreign Affairs and Justice, Finance, and the 

 Interior. The state maintains an armed force 

 of about 2,000 men. The Administrator-Gen- 

 eral of the local government at Boma is C. 

 Janssen. The Administrator-General of For- 

 eign Affairs and Justice in Brussels is E. van 

 Eetvelde; of Finance, H. van Neuss; of the 

 Interior, Gen. M. Strauch. There are four ad- 

 ministrative divisions, under provincial chiefs. 

 These are the Lower Congo, Livingstone Falls 

 and the Pool, the district between the Pool 

 and the equator, and the Upper Congo. 



The area of the Free-State territory is esti- 

 mated at 1,056,200 square miles, with a popu- 

 lation of 27,000,000 souls. The state embraces 

 a strip on the north bank of the Congo from 

 the mouth of the river to Manyanga, where 

 French territory begins. Beyond the mouth 

 of the Likona the bank of the Congo belongs 

 to the new state, whose boundary extends 

 thence northward to 4 north latitude, east- 

 ward to 30 east longitude, then southward to 



Lake Bangweolo, in 12 south latitude, west- 

 ward from there to 24 east longitude, north- 

 ward again to 6 south, and then westward to 

 the south bank of the Congo at Nokki. The 

 principal articles of export are palm-oil, rub- 

 ber, ivory, gum-copal, ground-nuts, orchilla- 

 weed, and cam-wood. The import articles 

 are textile fabrics, fire-arms, powder, spirits, 

 and tobacco. The capital of the Congo State 

 is Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool. 



Finances. The Government, in January, 

 1886, decided to issue a lottery loan of 100,- 

 000,000 francs, in lots of 20 francs, not bearing 

 interest, to be repaid in annual drawings ex- 

 tending over a period of twenty years. The 

 state has a revenue of $250,000 a year, guaran- 

 teed by the King of the Belgians. In Febru- 

 ary, 1886, the following export duties were es- 

 tablished by the Government of the Free State : 

 Earth-nuts, 1*30 franc per 100 kilos; coffee, 

 1 franc; caoutchouc, 20 francs; gum-copal, 8 

 francs; palm-oil, 2*50 francs; ivory, 50 francs; 

 palm-nuts, 1*20 franc; sesame, 1*70 franc. 



Ratification of the General Act. The representa- 

 tives of the powers that signed the general act 

 of the Congo met at Berlin on April 19, to 

 draw up a protocol with reference to the de- 

 livery of ratifications. All the signatories rati- 

 fied the treaty with the exception of the United 

 States, which sent delegates to the Conference 

 on the understanding that their part should be 

 merely deliberative, and should not bind the 

 Government to any action on another conti- 

 nent, as the United States Government is not 

 disposed to share in the disposal of jurisdic- 

 tional questions in remote foreign territories, 

 or in the obligation to enforce neutrality in the 

 valley of the Congo. The President therefore, 

 abstained from asking the sanction of the 

 Senate to the general act, though Mr. Kasson, 

 who, as minister to Berlin, was a delegate to 

 the Conference, held that the United States, 

 in becoming a party to the instrument, would 

 assume no obligation, except to respect the 

 neutrality of the Congo region. 



Railroad Projects. The founders of the Congo 

 State were aware that a railroad from the head 

 of navigation on the lower Congo to Stanley 

 Pool, above the cataracts, was necessary for 

 the development and success of their political 

 enterprise, and the achievement of the humani- 

 tarian and commercial objects for which it 

 was begun. The distance is 235 miles. Be- 

 yond there are 7,000 miles of navigable wa- 

 ters already explored, leading to rich and popu- 

 lous districts, yielding many valuable articles 

 of commerce. From Leopoldville, which is 

 800 miles from the sea, the Congo is navigable 

 for 900 miles up to Stanley Falls. 



The Congo State found an English syndicate 

 that was willing to build the railroad ; but, 

 after nine months had been spent in negotia- 

 tions, the authorities in Brussels refused to 

 agree to terms demanded, and the syndicate 

 was dissolved on Sept. 24. The English capi- 

 talists demanded that thev should have the sole 



