(Signed) LANSDOWNE.
Inclosure in No. 5.
_Memorandum._
The first portion of the “Notes” refers to the desire expressed by the
Congo Government for the production of the previous Reports of His
Majesty’s Consuls alluded to in the Circular of His Majesty’s Government
of the 8th August last. This matter has already been dealt with in the
despatch addressed to Sir C. Phipps on the 19th of April.
The next point in the “Notes” is the statement made by Mr. Casement that
the population has decreased in certain districts; doubt is expressed as
to how, in the course of his rapid visits, he was able to arrive at the
figures which he gives, and attention is drawn to alleged discrepancies
in those figures. With regard to Mr. Casement’s ability to form an
opinion on the subject, it is to be observed that the means at his
disposal for doing so were neither greater nor less than those of Mgr.
van Ronslé, viz., personal knowledge of what the population had been in
former years and what it appeared to him to be at the date of his last
visit. The alleged discrepancy in his figures consists in the fact that,
having estimated the population of the entire community of the F line of
villages at 500, a few lines further on he estimates that of “the
several villages whose task it is to keep the wood post victualled” at
240. The explanation is to be found in the fact that in the first
instance Mr. Casement alluded to all the villages comprising the
Settlement, whereas in the second he referred only to the inhabitants of
that portion of the Settlement whose business it was to supply food for
the neighbouring wood-cutting post.
The Congo Government admit that Mr. Casement attributes, equally with
Mgr. van Ronslé, a large share of the diminution of the population to
the sleeping sickness, but attach to another cause, viz., the facility
with which the natives are able to migrate, greater weight than appears
to His Majesty’s Government to be justifiable, since more than one
reference in the Consul’s Report shows that the natives are not allowed
to leave their own districts.
On p. 4 of the “Notes” (p. 3, _supra_) the complaint is made that Mr.
Casement’s Report contains, not exact, precise, and proved facts, but
statements and declarations by natives. It is difficult, however, to see
how the facts dealt with can be proved without hearing the statements
and declarations of natives: the grounds of their complaints at all
events can be learnt exactly and precisely from them alone.
In the last paragraph of p. 4 (p. 3, _supra_) an attempt is made to show
that because during his journey into the interior of the Congo State,
Mr. Casement was not the guest of the authorities, and because during
that journey he visited his countrymen, therefore his presence must
“inevitably” have been considered by the natives as antagonistic to
“established authority.” Mr. Casement was, however, obviously at liberty
to move about his Consular district without previous consultation with
the authorities, and he was at special pains to impress on the people
that he had no authority to set things right. It is clear from his
Report, as indeed is borne out by the “Notes,” that he was careful to
refer the natives to the Government of the State. As a matter of fact,
in many parts of the country the natives did not know who he was, while
it is equally certain that the rumour of the “campagne menée contre
l’État du Congo” to which allusion is made as having influenced the
inhabitants could not possibly have reached them, since it is difficult
to imagine that a population who are represented as among the most
savage and backward of mankind, and dwelling in the heart of Africa,
could be aware of debates in a European assembly, or of the press
comments made thereon.
Mr. Casement could not, as asserted, have appeared to all the natives of
the Lulongo River in the character attributed to him, and this is shown
in a letter the agent of the Lulanga Company at Bokakata addressed to
Mr. Ellery, of the Congo Balolo Mission at Ikau, on the 28th August.
Mr. Casement had found women hostages tied up and guarded by two
sentries of that Company who told him how it was these women came to be
captured and detained, in order to compel their husbands to bring in
rubber.