If this be so the syndicates are entering upon an
experiment which for Americans is almost without precedent. They
will be virtually what in England is called a chartered company,
with the difference that the Englishmen receive their charter from
their own government, while the charter under which the Americans
will act will be granted by a foreign Power, and for what they may
do in the Congo their own government could not hold them
responsible. They are answerable only to the Power that issued the
charter; and that Power is the just, the humane, the merciful
Leopold.
The history of the early days of chartered companies in Africa,
notoriously those of the Congo, Northern Nigeria, Rhodesia, and
German Central Africa does not make pleasant reading. But until the
Americans in the Congo have made this experiment, it would be most
unfair (except that the company they choose to keep leaves them open
to suspicion) not to give them the benefit of the doubt. One can at
least say for them that they seem to be absolutely ignorant of the
difficulties that lie before them. At least that is true of all of
them to whom I have talked.
The attorney of the Rubber Company when interviewed by a
representative of a New York paper is reported to have said: "We
have purchased a privilege from a Sovereign State and propose to
operate it along purely commercial lines. With King Leopold's
management of Congo affairs in the past, or, with _what he may do in
an administrative way in the future, we have absolutely nothing to
do_.
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