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



whereas his picture of the men would seem to show that, what- 

 ever the system under which they worked, they would turn it to 

 barbarous use. This tendency to make the system share the 

 blame appears even in what is said of the notorious ^Nlajor 

 Lothaire : — ' The system of butchery which has been inaugur- 

 ated in the jNIongalla concession is directly traceable to him, 

 although he has always been sufficiently wily not to place any 

 written proof of this where it could be brought against him. . . . 

 His hasty and despotic treatment of the blacks, as shown in the 

 massacre at Bau, had due effect upon his subordinates, by 

 whom he has been regarded as a hero since the day he lynched 

 a British subject, Stokes, a white man. ... It is, however, 

 mere justice to add that Major Lothaire is' a brave, usually 

 even-tempered, and, I firmly believe, not naturally hard-hearted 

 man. For many of his faults and much of the ill that he has 

 done, the system of the Congo must be held primarily 

 responsible.' 



" One of the first and most natural questions to be asked is, 

 How far does the influence of missionaries avail to lessen those 

 . awful evils ? And the answer, at least as given by Captain 

 Burrows, is disappointing. We need not quote at length his 

 personal opinion of the missionaries he has met in the Congo. 

 Of some he evidently thought highly ; others he writes down 

 as weak-chinned and the wrong men for the work ' ; others, 

 again, he does not hesitate to describe as ' rank.' But, taking 

 the men as they are, what have they done for the protection of 

 the natives ? According to what we are here told, practically 

 nothing. Incidentally, they may do something to ameliorate 

 the condition of those around them, but on such vital matters 

 as the collection of rubber and ivory and forced recruiting, they 

 are powerless. .' They are fairly in the toils of a most immoral 

 corporation, and they are obliged to frame their actions accord- 

 ing to its dictates. They have no option in this matter. If 

 they became in the least degree troublesome ; if they de- 

 nounced a single one of the crying evils that surround their 

 daily lives ; if they taught the native the iniquity of the con- 

 ditions under which he is made to live and groan, they would 

 soon cease to be missionaries in the Congo State.' 



" It is possible that this picture of missionary impotence is 

 overdrawn, but it is best that Captain Burrows's view of the 

 case should be widely known amongst the friends of missions. 

 Many would be ready to say that acquiescence in nameless 

 cruelties is too great a price for religious teachers under any 

 circumstances to pay ; but one effect of the publication of this 

 book will probably be authorised statements from the mis- 

 sionaries' point of view, such as that by the Baptist Missionary 



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