FRONTIERS AND DIPLOMATIC SETTLEMENTS
The Conventional Basin of the Congo contains about 1,500,000
square miles, of which the Free State occupies 1,000,000, and its
neighbours, France, Great Britain, Germany, and Portugal, about
500,000. On the east of the Free State, and divided from it by Lakes
Tanganyika, Kivu, and Albert Edward, is German East Africa, on the
coast of the Indian Ocean; on the south-east lie British possessions;
on the south the Portuguese, and on the east and north-east the
French Congo and Soudan; on the north-east, in the Nile Valley, lie
the Egyptian Soudan and the Uganda Protectorate, the one on the west,
the other on the east bank of the Nile.
[Illustration: Native Ploughing in Botanical Garden at Ealer
(Equateur).]
The Berlin Conference of 1885 had not dealt with questions of
territory except to delimit the area comprised in the Congo Basin.
By the Anglo-German Agreements of 1886 and 1890, the borders of
German East Africa had been generally defined. France, however,
still fostered the hope of acquiring dominion of the Egyptian Soudan
and, perhaps, of nearly all of the northern part of Africa. The
arrangement with the Sovereign of the Congo Free State, giving her
a right of pre-emption of the State over other Powers, would
indicate an ambition in this direction. That France endeavoured to
achieve her aim in this respect was forcibly demonstrated by the
expedition of Captain Marchand and the Fashoda incident. So far as
Germany and Portugal were concerned, the Congo Free State’s boundary
had been well-nigh firmly established, but with France and Great
Britain there was a lack of settlement on this important question
which threatened the State with future insecurity.
The first convention on this subject was concluded with Great
Britain, and concerned the Bahr-el-Ghazal, referred to in the
succeeding chapter.
The Franco-Congolese Convention of 14th August, 1894, was of great
importance to the young State, albeit the price it paid for the
friendly attitude of France may appear greater than the security
afforded. The relations which existed between France and the State,
when the upper course of the Ubanghi became the object of frontier
settlement, were defined by the Convention of 5th February, 1885,
and that of 29th April, 1887. In the first, France agreed, in
return for the right of pre-emption conferred on her in 1884, to
determine her own Congolese limits and those of the Free State, and
to guarantee the latter’s neutrality. In the second, the Belgian
Congo surrendered a considerable territory to France by substituting
the Ubanghi to the 17th degree of east longitude for the boundary
defined in the third article of the treaty of 5th February, 1885, and
the modification of her right of pre-emption in favour of Belgium in
certain contingencies. These negotiations, beginning in 1891, were
not settled until 1894, owing to conflicting views as to the course
of the Ubanghi. Moreover, the French Government had expostulated
vigorously against the British proposal to lease the Bahr-el-Ghazal
to the Congo Free State, while Germany protested against British
possession of the strip of land between Lakes Tanganyika and Albert
Edward, which the Free State intended granting in payment for its
lease of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The article conveying this strip,
manifestly intended for the Cape-to-Cairo railway conceived by
Mr. Cecil Rhodes, was, in fact, withdrawn by arrangement between
the British and Congo Governments on June 22, 1894. Meantime, the
French Government had contended that the river Uelle was the true
upper course of the Ubanghi, and that the State had no rights north
of it, “even though it resulted in moving the State’s frontier
line south of the fourth parallel secured to it by the Convention
of February, 1885.” There were, however, on the part of the Congo
State, the advantages of possession and effective occupation of the
territory north of the Uelle and the right bank of the Mbomu, which
had now been geographically established as the uppermost course of
the Ubanghi. An offer was made by the Congo State to arbitrate the
matter in accordance with the provisions of the Berlin Act. France,
however, declined to submit the case to such tribunal. Finally,
after three years’ delay, a convention between France and the Congo
Free State was signed in Paris on 14th August, 1894, which contained
six articles. The first conceded part of the Belgian claim by
constituting the river Mbomu the upper course of the Ubanghi.
Article 1. The frontier between the Independent State of the Congo
and the colony of the French Congo, after following the thalweg of
the Ubanghi to the confluence of the Mbomu and the Uelle, shall
be formed in the following manner:—First, the thalweg of Mbomu
to its source; second, a straight line joining the crest of the
water-parting between the basins of the Congo and the Nile. From
this point the frontier of the Independent State is constituted by
the said crest of the water-parting to as far as its intersection
with the 30th degree of east longitude (Greenwich).
Article 2. It is understood that France will exercise, under
conditions which shall be determined by a special arrangement,
the right of police on the course of the Mbomu, with the right
of pursuit on the left bank. This right of police will not be
exercisable on the left bank, but exclusively along the course
of the river, and so long as pursuit by the French agents is
indispensable to effect the arrest of the authors of offences
committed on French territory or on the waters of the river. France
shall have, when necessary, a right of passage on the left bank, to
assure her communications along the course of the river.
The third article stipulated for the gradual surrender to the
French of the posts established by the State north of the Uelle;
and the fourth and the final articles “bound the State to renounce
all political action of any kind to the west or north of the
following line—the 30th degree of east longitude, from its point of
intersection with the crest of the water-parting of the basins of the
Congo and the Nile to as far as the point where this meridian meets
the parallel 5° 30´, and thence that parallel to the Nile.”
By these articles, and the good feeling that has since prevailed
between the French and the Belgians, all matters likely to have
caused dispute have been settled. A well-defined boundary has been
laid down between the French possessions and the Congo State from
the Atlantic to the Nile. If the King of the Belgians surrendered
to France what others would have retained, it was so dealt with
because of that wise political foresight which has characterised
his Majesty’s diplomacy in other respects. The friendly relations
between France and the Congo State, the settlement of northern
boundaries along the Mbomu, and the lease of the Bahr-el-Ghazal from
Great Britain, have dispelled much Belgian anxiety. The question
which now appears to forebode difficulty is what the Belgians
believe to be Great Britain’s scheme for a pretext to break the
lease of the Enclave of Lado, a rich and prosperous territory in the
Bahr-el-Ghazal, where the Belgians have established posts along the
Nile as far north as Lado. As to Great Britain’s purpose in this
connection there have been many recent signs.
[Illustration: The Old Covered Market at Boma.]