“Apart from the rough plantations which barely suffice to feed the
natives themselves and to supply the stations, all the fruits of the
soil are considered as the property of the State or of the
concessionaire societies.... It has even been admitted that on the land
occupied by them the natives cannot dispose of the produce of the soil
except to the extent in which they did so before the constitution of the
State.”
“Each official in charge of a Station, or agent in charge of a factory,
claimed from the natives, without asking himself on what grounds, the
most divers imposts in labor or in kind, either to satisfy his own needs
and those of his Station, or to exploit the riches of the Domaine....
The agents themselves regulated the tax and saw to its collection and
had a direct interest in increasing its amount, since they received
proportional bonuses on the produce thus collected.”
“Missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, whom we heard at
Leopoldville, were unanimous in accentuating the general wretchedness
existing in the region. One of them said that “this system which compels
the natives to feed 3000 workmen at Leopoldville, will, if continued for
another five years, wipe out the population of the district.”
“Judicial officials have informed us of the sorry consequences of the
porterage system; it exhausts the unfortunate people subjected to it,
and threatens them with partial destruction.”
“In the majority of cases the native must go one or two days’ march
every fortnight, until he arrives at that part of the forest where the
rubber vines can be met with in a certain degree of abundance. There the
collector passes a number of days in a miserable existence. He has to
build himself an improvised shelter which cannot, obviously, replace his
hut. He has not the food to which he is accustomed. He is deprived of
his wife, exposed to the inclemencies of the weather and the attacks of
wild beasts. When once he has collected the rubber he must bring it to
the State station, or to that of the Company, and only then can he
return to his village where he can sojourn for barely more than two or
three days because the next demand is upon him.”
“It was barely denied that in the various posts of the A. B. I. R. which
we visited, the imprisonment of women hostages, the subjection of the
chiefs to servile labor, the humiliations meted out to them, the
flogging of rubber collectors, the brutality of the black employees set
over the prisoners, were the rule commonly followed.”
“According to the witnesses, these auxiliaries, especially those
stationed in the villages, convert themselves into despots, claiming the
women and the food; they kill without pity all those who attempt to
resist their whims. The truth of the charges is borne out by a mass of
evidence and official reports.”
“The consequences are often very murderous. And one must not be
astonished. If in the course of these delicate operations, whose object
it is to seize hostages and to intimidate the natives, constant watch
cannot be exercised over the sanguinary instincts of the soldiers, when
orders to punish are given by superior authority, it is difficult to
prevent the expedition from degenerating into massacres, accompanied by
pillage and incendiarism.”