THE CONGO FREE STATE 269 



Belgian is quite as enlightened a person as the 

 average EngHshman, and the majority of the Congo 

 officials are officers in the Belgian army, who have 

 been moved by the same spirit of adventure that 

 has sent Englishmen into every corner of the world. 

 Being a small nation, they have been compelled 

 to enlist a large number of foreigners for the Congo 

 service ; but though this has possibly diminished 

 to some extent patriotism and espjnt de corps, many 

 of the foreigners, notably the Scandinavians and 

 Italians, have filled the highest posts in the Adminis- 

 tration with conspicuous success. 



When I first went there I was, I confess, pre- 

 judiced against the Congo State, as most English- 

 men who read their newspapers would probably be ; 

 nor was my first experience calculated to give me 

 a very favourable impression of the State. In the 

 preceding pages (Chapters XI. and XIV.) I have 

 recorded fully, perhaps even at too great a length, 

 the two instances of ill-treatment of natives which 

 came under my personal notice. In both of these 

 cases the individual at fault was a sous-officier, who 

 was enjoying temporarily a position of exceptional 

 authority, and I believe that the chance of airing 

 his authority in the presence of strangers had not 

 a little to do with his behaviour. In any case, 

 the policy of placing people of that sort in positions 

 of responsibility is most strongly to be condemned ; 

 but I believe that such incidents are rare. 



In other chapters I have expressed sufficiently 



