Press Opinions on the "Curse of Central MvicsL^^—contd. 



constitute not merely an outrage on the conscience of the 

 civilised world, but a menace to the future work of every 

 European Power which has taken on itself the responsibility 

 for the good government of any portion of Equatorial Africa." 

 -^Morning Post. 



" Messrs. R. A. Everett & Co. publish ' The Curse of Central 

 Africa,' by Capt. Guy Burrows, with which is incorporated * A 

 Campaign amongst Cannibals,' by Edgar Canisius, the volume 

 being marked ' Second Impression,' for reasons which are not 

 completely explained in the introduction from the pen of Mr. 

 John George Leigh. It it stated in the introduction that legal 

 proceedings have been threatened on behalf of the Congo State 

 by Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, whose name is twice misspelt. We 

 may say at once that the introduction and also the portion of 

 the book which is from the pen of Mr. Canisius, an American, 

 contain detailed statements with regard to a well-known 

 Belgian officer, Major Lothaire, which might be made the basis 

 of legal proceedings in our courts. Many of the Belgian officers 

 who are named in the volume are beyond all doubt men whose 

 shameful and shocking proceedings could not possibly be 

 defended before an English jury. But the case of Major 

 Lothaire is different. He is not without friends and admirers, 

 even in this country, and although he became unpopular here 

 after he shot Stokes, yet Stokes was not above reproach, and 

 there is a Belgian side to that transaction. If it is to be estab- 

 lished that the statements in the volume before us are in any 

 degree exaggerations, it is by Major Lothaire, we think, that 

 such proof can possibly be offered. The true case against the 

 Congo State is made by Mr. Fox-Bourne in an admirable book 

 which we recently reviewed, and it is doubtful how far it is 

 strengthened by the more detailed and much more sensational 

 statements put forward in the present volume upon evidence 

 which may or may not be sufficient. The book is an odd one 

 in its construction. Capt. Guy Burrows begins, as it were, in 

 the middle of his story, for he merely states in his first para- 

 graph that ' at the expiration of a year's leave ... I left 

 Antwerp on the 6th of June, 1898, to resume my duties as 

 Commissioner.' His contribution to the volume is followed by 

 that of Mr. Canisius, but it is not clear at what point this 

 second section ends, nor who is the author of the last part — 

 which is political, and follows Mr. Fox- Bourne, Mr. E. D. 

 Morel, and the Belgian writers who have published accounts of 

 the Congolese administration. The book may be lightened for 

 Uie general public, and especially for those of them who are 

 fond of horrors, by the photographs, some of which have 



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