THE BAHR-EL-GHAZAL AND THE NILE
In addition to the territories of the Congo Free State proper, the
sovereignty of which is vested in Leopold II., King of the Belgians,
and his successors, King Leopold holds on lease from Great Britain
the Bahr-el-Ghazal up to 10° N. A treaty entered into between the
Congo Free State and Great Britain on 12th May, 1894, determines the
duration of this lease, and the extent of the territory to which
it applies. The conditions are somewhat complicated, partaking in
a measure of the nature of an exchange, the Congo Free State, by
Article III., leasing to Great Britain a strip of territory between
the lakes Tanganyika and Albert Edward.
To be more precise: In 1890 the Congo Free State despatched several
missions to its frontiers, some of which penetrated the Nile
region and made various political arrangements with the ruling
chiefs there. It happened also at that period (July, 1890) that
Germany and Great Britain entered into an agreement whereby Germany
acknowledged the paramount influence of Great Britain in the Nile
Basin. This agreement was no sooner concluded than Great Britain
opened negotiations with the Congo Free State, offering to grant
thereto, on lease, certain territories situated west of the Basin
of the Nile, if the Congo Free State would accord to Great Britain’s
presence in the Nile Basin recognition similar to that which it had
just obtained from Germany. Out of this overture grew the treaty of
12th May, 1894, between the Congo Free State and Great Britain, to
which allusion has already been made.
By that treaty, Great Britain leases to Leopold II., King of the
Belgians and Sovereign of the Congo Free State, the territories
limited by a line starting from a point situated on the west bank of
Lake Albert Edward, south of Mahagi, to the point of intersection
of the 30th meridian east of Greenwich, the frontier line of the
territories so assigned following the head of the division of the
Nile and Congo waters to the 25th meridian east of Greenwich; and
along this meridian to its intersection with the 10th north parallel,
and along this parallel direct to a point north of Fashoda; thence
to the west bank of Lake Albert Edward, south of Mahagi. These
territories comprise the entire basin of the Bahr-el-Ghazal River
and its affluents (except the upper portion of the Bahr-el-Arab),
and are generally referred to as the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The treaty
further provides that the lease is to remain operative during the
reign of King Leopold II. only, except as regards that portion of the
Bahr-el-Ghazal west of the 30th meridian, permanently vested in the
Congo Free State.
[Illustration: Commissariat of the District of Banana, 1893.]
France, which had never recognised British influence in the Nile
Basin, at once protested against this arrangement, asserting that
Great Britain had leased territories which did not belong to
her. While this delicate question was _sub judice_ there arose the
celebrated Fashoda incident which brought Great Britain and France
perilously near to war. The circumstances of that incident are too
near our own times, and too remote from the purpose of this book,
to need recounting here. But it is important to refer to it in this
place, because in the settlement of the Fashoda dispute between Great
Britain and France the latter recognises the paramount influence of
the former in the Basin of the Nile.
The only obstacle in the way of the execution of the treaty of 12th
May, 1894, was now removed, Great Britain’s right to dispose of the
territories leased to the Sovereign of the Congo Free State being
everywhere admitted. But now Great Britain herself sought, without
justification, to annul the treaty. Because the Congo State had
made therein certain reservations in regard to France—a perfectly
natural proceeding at a period when the rights of Great Britain over
the Bahr-el-Ghazal were in dispute—Great Britain contended that the
treaty of 12th May, 1894, had practically lapsed. After the battle of
Omdurman, the British even went so far as to give, in part, practical
effect to this extraordinary view of their treaty obligations,
occupying, upon several occasions, Meshra-er-Rek, at the confluence
of the Bahr-Djur and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
From information which reached Europe and America early in November,
1904, it would appear that Great Britain has resolved to carry this
matter with a high hand. A British expedition was said to be then in
process of formation, composed of 2500 native troops, officered by
Englishmen, to penetrate Central Africa, ostensibly to restore order
among the Niam-Niam tribe.
Now the Niam-Niam tribe inhabit the Bahr-el-Ghazal country. That
is one reason why Great Britain concerns herself with that tribe;
but there is another, and a much stronger, reason. Recently it has
been discovered that vast mineral wealth exists in that region,
and Belgians, Frenchmen, Germans, and particularly natives of that
country which “seeks no gold mines and seeks no territory,” have
busily employed themselves in prospecting it. Trading relations
have been established by small companies supposed to be engaged in
exchanging fire arms and ammunition for ivory, but really prospecting
for ore.
Side by side with this information comes the official announcement
that the British Government has given orders, either directly or
through a subsidised company, for the erection of a permanent
telegraph connecting Khartoum with the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and that
transport for traders up the White Nile is guaranteed as far as
Fashoda. Already a section of the British newspaper press is
advocating the establishment of British military stations and posts
upon ground of which King Leopold holds a perfectly valid lease
granted by Great Britain!
[Illustration: King Nekuku and his Suite at Boma.]
Is it too high a flight of the imagination to suppose that the
patience with which the British Government has listened to the
libellous tirades against the Congo Free State, in the form of
petitions to the House of Commons, is to be explained by its
evident desire to cut loose from its treaty obligations, and forcibly
take away what it voluntarily ceded to the Congo Free State for a
valuable consideration?