Press Opinions on the ** Curse of Central Africa "—^wz/^. 



already appeared elsewhere, though all are not of a nature to 

 create confidence. The first photographs, after the portraits of 

 Capt. Burrows and the Sovereign of the Congo State, are two 

 which face each other, but one is merely an enlargement^ of 

 the other, apparently inserted for some purpose of verification 

 which is not clear. This photograph bears signs of having 

 been touched, and therefore strikes a note which is unfortunate. 

 It is also an unhappy fact that the authors will set against them 

 a good deal of opinion which ought to have been on their side, 

 on account of the statement, in the Burrows part of the book, 

 that many of the missionaries are men who have resorted to the 

 Congo State ' with a desire to escape unpleasant consequences 

 resulting from some form of indiscretion or other.' Many of 

 the missionaries in the Congo State are men of the highest 

 repute in their religious bodies. To some of them we owe the 

 most complete and the most trustworthy exposure of the 

 horrors of Congolese administration which has been made. It 

 is the case that much has been said against the missionaries 

 for having given countenance to the proceedings of the King 

 of the Belgians. Those who, like Mr. Thomas Bayley, M.P., in 

 a recent speech to a Baptist gathering at Nottingham, have felt 

 it their plain duty to censure the conduct of missionaries of 

 their own denomination, will find their hands weakened by the 

 unjust and unfair charge here made by Capt. Burrows. What 

 can be truly said is bad enough. In reply to Mr. Bayley, a 

 gentleman was sent down, apparently from the headquarters of 

 the Baptist missions in London, to state that the Baptists could 

 not but be grateful to the King of the Belgians, who had reduced 

 by fifty per cent, the taxation upon their missionary property, 

 and that the recent deputation to Brussels to express confidence 

 in the humanity of the King was justified by this reduction. A 

 more terrible admission we have never known. The contribu- 

 tion of Mr. Canisius to the volume is thoroughly deserving of 

 attention, and, as he is evidently a serious observer, we note 

 the inaccuracy of his statement that ' the African, as a general 

 rule, is not suitable material for the making of a good soldier.' 

 This is supported by a reference to ' the scandalous conduct of 

 some of the negro regiments of the United States.' The last 

 allusion is to circumstances unknown to us. We had always 

 heard and believed that the Government of the United States 

 had had reason to congratulate itself upon its black troops, 

 both in the Civil War and in the recent war with Spain. Un- 

 doubtedly, however, African regiments, recruited with care, 

 have produced admirable results, and the French Senegalese 

 levies are among the best troops in the world, as are the 

 Egyptian Soudanese. The index is feeble, and we note the 



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