a much more lurid description of the facts. I shall merely add one sentence from Professor Cattier's famous volume upon the Congo which was discussed in the Belgian House of Representatives, along with the Report of the Commission. He says:
The impositions in rubber and foodstuffs which weigh upon more than half the territory, that is to say, over an area three or four times as large as France, subject the natives to a well-nigh-continuous slavery, a slavery more severe than that imposed by the Arabs.
In 1908 the Congo was made over by King Leopold to Belgium, and the transfer was recognized by practically all the Great Powers, except Britain, who withheld her sanction till 1913. On May 29, 1913, Sir Edward Grey announced to the House of Commons the intention of the British Government to recognize the annexation of the Congo by Belgium and said that they were now fully satisfied that the condition of affairs had completely changed. While it shocks us that the atrocities should have gone on so long, it is probably true that at no previous stage in the world's history would the condition of uncivilized savages have been so much a matter of concern to the millions who had no personal interest in them.
Atrocities have been reported in the Putumayo district of Peru on the upper Amazon, some of the newspapers describing them as worse than those on the Congo. This is probably an exaggeration, but there have doubtless been very great cruelties inflicted upon the Indians there. But as the matter has been the subject of investigation not only by religious missions, but by a commission of the Peruvian government, as well as by a British government commissioner and by a select committee appointed by the House of Commons, it is to be hoped that the inhumanity is now at an end.
