154 



CONGO FREE STATE. 



immediately south of Mahagi and running to 

 the nearest point on the water parting between 

 the Nile and the Congo, then following the water 

 parting up to 25 of east longitude, and that me- 

 ridian up to 10 of north latitude, and thence 

 following that parallel to a point to be deter- 

 mined north of Fashoda, from which it followed 

 the Thalweg of the Nile down to Lake Albert 

 and the western shore of the lake to the starting 

 point south of Mahagi. The lease was to remain 

 in force in its entirety during the reign of Leo- 

 pold II as sovereign of the Independent State of 

 the Congo ; and after the cessation of his reign 

 it was to continue in force so far as concerned 

 the territory west of 30 of west longitude, and 

 bounded by the twenty-fifth meridian, namely, the 

 Bahr el Ghazal region ; and also a strip 25 kilo- 

 metres wide, running from the watershed between 

 the Nile and the Congo to the western shore of Lake 

 Albert and including the port of Mahagi, so long 

 as the Congo territories remained an independent 

 state or a Belgian colony under the sovereignty 

 of King Leopold's successors. The treaty pro- 

 vided further for the demarcation of the fron- 

 tiers of the Congo State and British Central 

 Africa in the neighborhood of Lakes Tanganyika 

 and Moero, and for the lease to Great Britain of 

 some territory near Lake Bangweolo. The recog- 

 nition of the British sphere in the Nile region 

 and the lease of the western half to the Congo 

 Free State were understood on both sides as not 

 in any way prejudicing the claims that Egypt, 

 and through her Turkey, might have to the 

 Equatorial Provinces whose administration was 

 abandoned when Egypt evacuated the Soudan. 



To facilitate the execution of the agreement 

 and forestall the French, the British Govern- 

 ment promised to allow the Congo State to re- 

 cruit negro troops in the British colonies in 

 West Africa, reserving for itself at the same 

 time the right to recruit soldiers in the territory 

 lying between the thirtieth meridian, and Lake 

 Albert. The British had already obtained a 

 foothold on the Nile at Wadelai, where their 

 flag was raised early in the year. 



The French objected to the creation of a buf- 

 fer state between their sphere and the Nile re- 

 gion. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 stated in the Chamber that he would consider 

 the agreement null and void. It assumed to 

 transfer to the Congo State, which was not com- 

 petent to acquire jurisdiction north of latitude 

 4 or east of longitude 30, the right to exercise 

 sovereignty in territories beyond those limits 

 over which Great Britain had obtained no rights, 

 and which were subject to the sovereignty of 

 Kgypt under the suzerainty of Turkey. The 

 German Government felt itself aggrieved by the 

 Anglo-Belgian agreement, because it secured to 

 England, under the form of a lease, the "wasp's 

 waist " connecting the British spheres in South 

 and in East Africa, which Germany refused to 

 concede, and which England finally renounced 

 in the iiegot iat ions of 1890. The French Cham- 

 ber voted a special credit to sxteud the military 

 posts in the Mbomii basin and forward troops 

 in the direction of the Bahr el Ghazal, and called 

 on the Government to demand the abrogation of 

 the Anglo-Congo agreement by a unanimous 

 vote. The French Government reiterated its 

 claim to the right of pre-emption in the Congo 



territories. France protested against the con- 

 clusion of an agreement which altered the posi- 

 tion of the Congo State in a region concerning 

 which delimitation negotiations were pending. 

 Germany objected quite as strongly to an ar- 

 rangement made behind her back, which cir- 

 cumvented the point on which she had firmly 

 insisted in 1890, and which affected her political 

 and commercial interests in Africa. Both gov- 

 ernments disputed the legality of the conven- 

 tion, since it changed the boundaries of the 

 Congo State, and neither would recognize the 

 leasing of territory as an admissible proceeding, 

 as it was a novelty in international law. The 

 Porte also objected to the convention on the 

 ground that it changed the status of the Egyp- 

 tian territory affected. 



The British and the Congo governments first 

 yielded to Germany, and canceled the article 

 securing a right of way between the lakes in the 

 rear of German East Africa. France addressed 

 her complaints to the Congo Government, and 

 impressed both it and the English Cabinet that 

 accomplished facts might alter their diplomatic 

 arrangements by dispatching on June 30 a force 

 of 1,500 Senegalese soldiers under Col. Monteil 

 to the upper waters of the Ubangi, with 6 Hotch- 

 kiss guns and several gunboats. The French 

 Government wished to avoid a rupture with Eng- 

 land, and was able to secure from the Congo 

 State at the same time an abandonment of its 

 schemes of northward expansion in the disputed 

 territory and a virtual renunciation of the 

 Anglo-Belgian agreement. 



Agreement with France. The French and 

 the Congo State officers have for three years 

 been at enmity on the northern border of the 

 Independent State, where the Congolese organ- 

 ized an administration and recruited and armed 

 the natives, while the French had little polit- 

 ical influence and a weak military force. The 

 French colonials asserted that the Belgians had 

 penetrated 1| degree beyond the territorial 

 limit established by treaty. A French force of 

 100 whites and 700 Senegalese was sent to the 

 French Congo to resist further encroachments, 

 and in January, 1894, the French Government 

 opened further negotiations for a delimitation. 

 The Comte de Grelle Rogier went to Paris to 

 confer with the French Foreign Minister, Casi- 

 mir-Perier, and subsequently French delegates 

 were sent to confer with King Leopold, who re- 

 jected the French propositions and broke off 

 negotiations on April 23, being unwilling to 

 surrender territory already occupied by Congo 

 troops. 



The Anglo-Belgian agreement and the im-. 

 broglio between France and England inter- 

 vened. When the English Government made a 

 mien of upholding the agreement the Congo 

 garrisons on the Mbomu were re-enforced. The 

 vigorous action of France caused both England 

 and the Congo State to hesitate. Diplomatic 

 negotiations were resumed, and on Aug. 14 an 

 agreement was signed at Paris by Gabriel Hano- 

 taux, French Minister for Foreign Affairs, and 

 Jacques Haussmann, Joseph Devolder, and Baron 

 Constant Goffinet, delegates of the Congo Free 

 State. The boundary between the French Congo 

 and the Free State that was agreed upon, after 

 following the Thalweg of the Ubangi up to the 



