50 
EUROPE AND AFRICA 
any serious attempt at reform. Matters dragged on as they 
were until 1903, when the well-founded reports of the Rever- 
end J. H. Weeks and other missionaries and the investiga- 
tions of Consul Casement, supported by popular opinion, 
forced the British Government to take the initiative in de- 
manding of the Congo State Government a strict account of 
affairs. On August 8, 1903, the Marquis of Lansdowne 
sent a despatch to the British representatives at all the Con- 
tinental capitals, calling attention to the alleged cases of 
ill-treatment of natives and of the existence of trade monop- 
olies in the Congo Basin in open violation of Articles I and 
V of the Berlin Act, and stating that the British Govern- 
ment thought that the time had come for the powers signa- 
tory of the Berlin Act to consider whether or not the Congo 
State had violated the obligations concerning the treatment 
of natives and the maintenance of the freedom of trade. 
M. de Cuvelier finally replied to this note for the Congo 
Government, after pressure from the other powers, on March 
18, 1904. He described the situation from their point of 
view and questioned vigorously the truth of many state- 
ments in the report of Consul Casement. From then until 
1908, when the Belgian Government took over the Congo, 
a lively correspondence ensued between Great Britain and 
the officials of the Congo Independent State. 
The British ministers, while admitting that some of the 
reports concerning the situation on the Congo were probably 
exaggerated, endeavored to convince the Congo adminis- 
trators that the situation was such as to demand a thorough 
investigation and a complete public report, as a token of 
their good will and of the sincerity of their intentions. 
Surely, some vital and far-reaching reforms were necessary; 
and the whole matter ought to be carefully studied and 
remedies applied at the earliest possible moment. The 
Congo Government expressed its willingness to have the