£8
EUROPE AND AFRICA
the native but to leave his home and fields in desolation,
while he waited patiently for the appointment of an honest
and fair-dealing official.
The freedom of trade guaranteed to the Congo Basin, by
the treaties of the International Association and by the
Berlin Conference, had become a farce. The factories of
foreign states already in existence were undisturbed and
freedom of navigation on the main stream of the Congo
was not seriously interfered with; but the “free zone” was
actually limited to a “strip of land twenty kilometers broad on
both sides of the Congo from Stanley Falls to Isangi.”! In
no other part were traders permitted to purchase products
or remain for more than a day at a time, while large districts
in the interior were closed to both traders and travelers on
the ground of grave danger from revolting or unfriendly
chieftains. Even missionaries were forbidden to set up their
stations outside of certain prescribed regions and their
movements were carefully restricted. In fact, the whole
policy both of the Government and of the concessionnaire
companies was monopoly and exclusion on the one hand,
and extortion and exploitation on the other, with as little
exertion and expense on their part as possible in the de-
velopment of the country. ‘So long as the policy of the
State Government is to extract all it can from the country,
while using only local materials, and spending the least pos-
sible amount on developments and improvements,” wrote
Vice-Consul Michell in 1906, “no increase in the general
well-being can be expected.”
1 Consul-General Cromie’s report of June 1, 1907. Brit. Parl. Papers,
1908, Africa No. 1, cd. 3880, no. 3, p. 10.