Fabian Tract 1\'o. r86. Central , Africa and the League of Nations By R. C. Hawkin. Price Twopence. The Fabian Society, 2 5, Tothill Street, Westminster, London, S. W. I. June, I 9 I 8. SA ((e t , .;;.., 11{1, .-J Central Africa and the League of Nations By R. C. Hawkin It should be taken as an axiom that in spite of all revolutionary change which may or may not supervene after this war, no one will ever propose to withdraw international rights which already exist. Now, the Free Trade zone in Central Africa was created by International Law, so there exist many such rightsthere, and I shall begin by exposing them as a basis for the development of an International State subject to the control of the League of Nations. The story of the European occupation of Central Africa goes back to the times of Prince Henry the Navigator, a younger son of the usurper, King John I. of Portugal, by his marriage with Phillippa of Lancaster, the sister of our usurping King Henry IV. Prince Henry was Grand Master of the Order of Christ, and his expeditions laid the foundations of Portuguese predominaneeand prepared the downfall of Venetian commerce : one of his proclaimed objects was to extend the Holy Religion of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring to Him all the souls that wish to be saved, while incidentally he desired to secure help in the wars against the Mussulmans, and in consideration of these pious aspirations the Pope, in 1436, conceded to the Prince £ tithes to an earthly trustee, who would use his influence to settle di~putes between rulers. Abraham thereupon paid the tithes and agreed to accept these principles, though his Amorite allies refused to do so. Tius theory, however, was not very convenient to the Pope, because it upset the doctrines of conquest on which Imperial Rome was built ; so it began to ibe argued that the Pope had acquired hi::; rights over territory by virtue of a cession made to the Pope by the Emperor Constantine in return for a healing of his body and forgiveness of his sins. Thus the Christian Church came to recognise the theory of conquest, which is the negation of international right. The Portuguese, however, had to enforce their title to Afric.1 just as we have to do in Ireland, and this would have been a much more difficult matter if it had not been for the extraordinary influence of the Christian Religion over the natives. John II. of Portugal carried on Prince Henry's work, and in 1516 the King of Congo admitted his subjugation to Portugal. This was entirely because he was willing to do almost anyt.hing m order to secure missionaries to teach his people religion, and one -nativE.' chiai became him>elf a fanatical propagandist. The Geographical Society of LiS'bon have preserved records of a vasr, rebellion which broke out in Congo in consequence of a proclamation favouring monogamy, including a wonderful story of tho sudden appearance of a Red Cross knight on a white horse, who caused the rebels to fall into their own ambush, and left a smal~ band of Christians masters of the situation. The Papal Collapse. During the sixteenth century the missionary zeal of Portug.d began to wane, and, after repeated failures to secure priests from Portugal, the Congolese at last applied to Spain. Philip of Spain excused himself on the ground that he was engaged in conqueringEngland, so the Pope was applied to' once more, and he decided that the Congo must in future belong to Spain, who must send the missionaries. Here, then, we again find the only international authority stepping in to decide a question of title in Central Africa. It seems also that the Pope (Sixtus V.) claimed the right to dispossess the Portuguese and to re-grant the overlordship to Spain . Tie was certainly not the kind of Pope to 1be afraid of creating a precedent, for he selected a Jew for his chief adviser, excommunicated our Queen Elizabeth, and published his own translation of the Bible. After the Reformation Protestant countries claimed the power to make grants of distant lands to chartered companies, 4 and during the Thirty Years' War (1616-1646) the Pope found himself unable to maintain his international status. I am not able to say whether Portugal acquiescedin its loss of Central Africa. It. seems as though she did, but probably the Congo sank iback to its barbaric condition, oppressed by a neighbouring Emperor at the head of an army of women warriors, who selected their own husbands and left men to act a;; nurses. Portugal had done fairly well out of the Slave Trade, but her glory was now passing. The British and Dutch East India Companies were in progress of foundation, and in 1644 the Slave Tra,le with Brazil was commenced, the Arabs lending a hand, and lio international authority could interfere with those sea Powers who made money in this way. The conscience of England was at last aroused by the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century, followed 1by the democratic doctrines which swept over the world. An American Theory. There was then no international organisation for enforcing moral laws common to humanity j but America formulated a doctrine that land in the New World could be claimed by the first white occupier. When the slaves were freed in America very grave practicalquestions arose, and in 1822 a Committee in Washington raised a fund and acquired a tract of land in Upper Guinea as a refuge for freed African Negroes. A Republic was constituted called Liberia, and Great Britain acknowledged her independence. Another similar Republic called Maryland was founded by the purchaseof lands near Liberia, but Maryland was afterwards, by consent, annexed to Liberia. All this naturally introduced American influence into Africa, and aroused American interest in Africa as providing a possible solution for her black problems. A N·ew York daily paper had, therefore, no difficulty in raisingthe wind for Stanley's expedition through Central Africa, and he, ,1f course, flew the Unit·ed States flag as he went. Like Prince Henry, he combined business and philanthropy, but the United States Government understood the differen~e between the two, and was never under any delusion as to the dangerof t.he philanthropic side disappearing, so she soon began to watch Europe very carefully. Her new theory began to appear, which was the basis of land law in America, viz. : that African soil belonged to any Europe&n race which chose to cl•aim and occupy it. King Leopold of Belgium had by means of expeditions in 1882, 1883 and 1884 secured the signatures of various native chiefs t c some documents purporting to cede rights to a society called the International Association of the Congo, which had been founded 5 by King Leopold for the purpose of promoting the civilisation and commerce of Africa an~ for other humane and benevolent purposes. The Association published a declaration that a number of Free States were being established, and that the administration of th~ interests of the said Free States was vested in the Association, which would adopt a blue flag with a gold star in the centre. They undertook to levy no customs, to guarantee to all foreigners the right of navigation, commeroe and industry, and to do all in their power to prevent the Slave Trade and to suppress slavery. The World Conference of 1885. Englanu promptly recognised the International Associat10n, and King Leopold then applied to all the world to do the same-. For this purpose he summoned the Berlin Conference of 1885 to consider his proposition. Ali nations were invited, but the Pope, to his great chagrin, was refused a place at the Conference byBismarck. The first question which arose when the Conference assembled was the old problem, viz., by virtue of what right could such a Conference legislate for the world, and it was then agreed that the Acts should be issued in the name of Almighty God. So once more we see the quest for a moral sanction for International Law. America at once played the principal part, as she claimed that the Congo was discovered iby an American citizen flying the Stars and Stripes. America wanted the zone to be as big as possible, am~ got her way. Free Trade was guaranteed to all nations ; the principle of frt>e navigation laid down by the Congress of Vienna in respect of the Danube was adopted for the Congo and Niger rivers j a declaration relative to the neutrality of the Congo Basin was madd that this· law should he recognised as forming a part of International I.aw ; that any Power who had not signed the Berlin Act might at an;r time adhere to it ; and that any Power which thereafter took possession of, or assumed a protectorate over, any coast land Jf Africa must notify all the signatories of the Berlin Act, in order to enable them , if need be, to make good any claim of their own. Portugal, therefore, claimed a good deal by virtue of her old title, and these da.ims were duly recognised. America Protests. Now, all this was to the good, but a grave difficulty arose over the neutrality clauses. Everyone was willing to bind himself to respect r,h!:! neutrality of the Congo Br,sin, but the question aros~ as to what ~houln happen if the Powers exercising rights d sovereignty or protE:ctorates were enga~ed m war. How, then, 6 was neutrality to be enforced 1 Who was to do the enforcing 1 It was proposed th'lt all should agree to enforce neutrality, so that Centml Africa should be guaranteed neutral even if war occurreLl elsewhere. One Power alone stood out against this scheme, and that was America. She was estopped by the Monroe Doctrine from undertaking to use force in Africa, even to enforce peace. It is true she hau proclaimed her special interest in Liberia, and haci refused to allow France to proclaim a protectorate thereover; but to join the other European Powers in guaranteeing peace in Central Africa was too much for the Senate, who unhesitatmgly threw over their own 1epresentative at the Conference, and dissented from hi:l view. The clauses were whittled down and modified, but all to no purpose, and the American ratification was refused. Bismarck was furious, and made caustic comments on the inability of a democracy to conduct foreign affairs. The fact wa:> that the Senate was thoroughly disconcerted over the whole matt,er, and found itself quite out of harmony wit.ll European opinion about God and Africa. The view of the United Shtes was form~lly placed on record in 1890, when the Senate was ratifying the Brussf:'ls Act regarding the Slave Trade. It was to the effect that America disclaimed any intention to indicate any interest whatsover in the possessions or proter:torata:> established or claimed by European Powers in Africa, or any approval of the wisdom, expediency or lawfulness thereof. This resolution was sent round to all the Powers, and certainly requirrJ'lthe closest attention at this moment from those who imagine Central Africa can be used as a counter in the negotiations after the wu Evidence of the great gulf between the American and European point of view came only a few weeks afterwards, when King Leopold put the International Association of the Congo an:l Free States into the melting pot, and announced himself ;, s Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo. International Bureaux. In 1890 the Brussels Conference met to de.J.l with the Slave Trade and to limit the importation of firearms for the use of slavers and natives, and the features of the Act were the foundation of a number of International Bureaux charged with administering the Act. One was to be at Zanzibar, where the Slave Trade was well understood; this was to collect all information regarding the SLLve Trade. Another was a "Liberation 0ffice"; tht:.re wer-:l to be auxiliary .)ffices, with an ;nterna,tional control office, attached to the· Foreign Offio:e at Brussels, and laws were mada to suppress tbe trade and punish the offEnders. There have alsc ibe<'n International Acts to limit the LiquorTrade in c~ntral Africa, and it must be admitted that tc SOI:te extent these laws have been effective; but it was not the Congo Free State whieh carried out these reforms; it was to a great exten(, 7 England, armed with the authority acquired from these general Acts. Our ships chased the slaver:! off the seas, and our shipper;:~ assisted in repressing the liquor traffic and the traffic in firearms. America appealed to the Acts when chiding Belgium for ill-treating.the Congo natives, but there is at present no strong executive 1o :See that the Acts are properly enforced. Imperialism ousts Internationalism. WP pote, therefore, the rise of a new theory of World Government, by which territory was granted by a World Conference, subject to certain International Laws, limiting the rights of the Stat~s so created and imposing conditions on the new governing authorities in this great area, as well as on part of the territory originally granted by the Pope. Unfortunately, however, there aro,€ soon after the mad scramble for African territory which followed the discovery of gold in South Africa, and England, France, Belgium, and Germany all conceived ideas for acquiring African Empires. The British notion of a Cape-to-Cairo Empire was hampered by the effects of the Berlin Act, and Mr. Cecil Rhodes found his pet project held up by King Leopold, who had agreed to giv·~ France the right of pre-emption over the Congo Free State, and had made a will leaving all the property rights and privileges inherent in his Congo Sovereignty to Belgium. England and France had recently had trouble over Fashoda, and their relations were not good. Now Rhodes wanted in particular to run a telegraph wire along the Cape-to-Cairo route as the first step towards his goal; but the Kaiser was opposed to the whole project, and refused a request addressed to him by our Foreign, Office for permission to cross German East Africa. In 1896 the Kaiser sent his famous telegram to Kruger, and to the ordinary diplomatist Rhodes' decision to ~rv and square the Kaiser would doubtless have appeared to be of the wild cat order. Inspiration came when in 1898 he visited Egypt to make certain proposals to Lord Cromer with regard to his Cape-to-Cairo cheme. The latter did not approve of Mr. Rhodes' ideas of finance. for he himself was engaged in trying to prevent speculators from exploiting Egypt; but, during a visit to the Assouan Dam on the 1rik Mr. Rhodes heard about th~ project for irrigating t.he riel. plains of Bagdad by damming the Tig-ris and Euphrates, and he ·tlso heard ,,f the Kaiser'~ tdE>brated vi~it to yria and Jerusalem vnrl hi'> aspirations for a GE-rman Empire in l\1e!'opotamia. This idea was good et::>ugh for Rhodes, and he went straight 0tf to Berlin, which city he reached on March 10, 1899. Next mornir.ghe sallied out to see the Kaiser at Potsdam. and the flunkeys were surprised to see a travelling Englishman walk up to the Palace ;•ncl offer his card, explaining in En~lish that he wanted to see th" Kaiser. They were probably still more surprised to find that vh rulE's of precise German etiquette were all to be waived, and Cecil Rhodes was ushered into the august presence. 8 The Kaiser's deal with Rhodes. Now there is only one record in this country as to what took place, and that was an account written by Mr. Rhodes himself and handed to the then Prince of Wales (Edward VII.), who asked Mr. Rhodea for a record : but various persons heard at vario1:s tm.es various scraps of this most irregular diplomacy. 'Ve know that the Kaiser referred to his telegram to Preside1•t Kruger, and Rhodes explained that it deflected the British reseHt· ment felt against him to the Kaiser himself, because England rrsented the telegram. We know that the Kaiser brought out au atlas and at first resolutely refused to allow the Cape-to-Cairowire to cross German East Africa. We know that at last it came to something like a row, during which Fhode s11ddenly accused the Kaiser of wanting Mesopotamia, and U-.at the Kaiser retorted : " What if I do 7 " It wr.!\ tha1 n·ply that gave Hhodrs his supreme diplomaticvictory. Jle had won, for it was the admission 1by a responsible S•wHreign that Germany was coveting territory owned by Turkey . Hhodes saw l,is Gdv;;ntage and changed his tone. Now ht· coultl talk plain English, and he dared to offer the Kaiser a free haud in Me5opotamia in return for a fre';) hand in Africa. The Kai">er w&.s delighted; here was 1. man who offereci !lim tl:e ~~hanr:e of realising his glittering Oriental dream. .tnd swor~ th:Jt h~, could deliver the goods. The Kaiser took the bait. I don't believe there was anything in writing, but each und/31took to back the other. Three days later they met again at dinner, .and the following day the Telegraph agreement was dnly signed . The Kaiser told the British Ambassador that he only wished Mr. Rhodes could be his Prime Minister, as he personally was in favour <>f the Cape-to-Cairo wire, but that the Reichstag was not Imperialenough. Rhodes came back t.o England and delivered F. gm'.i~ speech eulogising the Kaiser, rmd he added a codicil to. his will by which fiv~ yearly 5chol;.,rships of £:l50 per annum were establish<"tt a.t OxfOJd for students uf Germar. birth, the nomination to bt-wiLL the Kaiser; moreover, he announced his object to be that an under· atanding should grow up between America, England and Germanywhich would render war impossible, '' because educational relations make the strongest tie." hhodes then returned to South Africa :and the Boer War began. All this explains the reference in Prince Lichnowsky's recent revelations to what he calls "the programme of the great Rhodes." It was a secret treaty made between two men, who merelv trusted each other, and the following were the consequences. The Kaiser, on his side, first of all persuaded Queen Wilhelmina of Holland to urge President Kruger to give way to Rhodes' demand 'for franchise reforms in the Transvaal; he then urged Kruger to accept mediation by America. When Kruger had refused the 9 Kaiser's advice and war broke out, he proclaimed German neutrality and refused all invitations to join }<'ranee and Russia against England. He refused to see Kruger when the old President reached Europe, and one of the last letters Mr. Rhodes ever received was from the Kaiser congratulating him on the fact that his telegraphwire had reached U jiji in Central Africa. It must be admitted that Rhodes did well out of the business. Meanwhile the Kaiser had called in Mr. Gwinner, the Presideu:, of the Deutsche Bank, to draft a proposal for the Anatolian Railway Concession in Asia l\1 inor. A few '' eeks after the South African War broke out the Kai:>er arrived in London with Prince Bulow, Bnd during his visit, on November 27, 1899, the Bagdad Concession was authorised by the Sultan of Turkey; it was signed on the day before the Kaiser left England. The Reichstag doubled the size of the German Navy. but there was no protest from England. Turkey decided to re-arm her fleet, an:l called for tenders. A British firm tendered £80,000 less than a German tender, but, to everyone's surprise, it was announced that the tenders would be open a second time. The result '\vas Lhe same, but theGerman tender was aecepted. Tenders were asked for the construction of the Bagdad Railway. A British firm was in competition with the Deutsche Bank. The latter was demanding from the Sultan twice the guarantee that was necessary to cover tl!e cost nf construction, but the Deutsche Bank got it. To pay the interest, the Sultan found himself obliged to pa .vn >he 'ithes \ayable by the Armenian farmers, and Germany thus became t-he tax-gatherer of Mesopotamia. The Deutsch3 B<.tnk secured ~h~ right to exploit the minerals ne,tr the railway, to cut the timber of th~ forests, to establish trading stations and a number of important. trade monopolies. No wonder that Karl Liebnecht was punished for persistently interrupting Reichstag speakers with the words: " What about the Deutsche Bank 1 " At last Russia took fright and the Balkan ·war broke out, but it is clear from Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum that Ge:many intended to press her claims against Turkey till just before t.he present war. We need not stray into the Balkan quagmire, but it will, I think, be clear that March 11, 1899, when Rhodes saw the Kaiser, was an important date in history. Now the esta,blishment of a telegraph wire from the Cape tc Cairo was a very reasonable thing, and we may ask whether ther~ was any more reasonable way of getting it done 1 Here was a work of great international importance, which would admittedly have opened out a rich and almost unpopulated country. Here were laws laid down at Berlin and Brussels, made with the object of developing trade and civilisation in Central Afrir.;),. ThPse laws enactPd Free Trade !n the very territory through which !hP wire was to pass. They introduced the International Conve!'l 10 tion of the Universal Postal Union, revised at Paris in 1878, as a law of Central Africa. Germany had with the other signaton~& solt:>mnly declared that she was animated by the firm intention uf putting an end to the Slave Trade, and that the establishment of telegraph lines was one of the most effective means for accomplishing this end. She was pledged by International Treaty to give aid and protection to commercial undertakings in Central Africa, and yet when it came to the point Rhodes was una~ble to secure from c. country whi-~h claimed to occupy German East Africa by virtue of a World Title simply a permit to run a telegraph wire throughthat country except on terms which in effect have laid the whole world under tribute, and more especially the unfortunate Turks. The Remedy : A New Executive. \Nill :wyone deny -uhat all :his might have been saved 1f th~ Conference at Berlin had gone further and established an executive charged with considering only international interests instead of omitting to create any body to enforce these interests 1 Even the International Pope could excommunicate and put countries under interdicts; but Rhodes had no such way, and it is evident that the European Powers were really taking no notice of their international obligations under International Law. England was by far the best: it really was keen on suppressing the Slave Trade, the liquor traffic, and on maintaining native rights, as the land laws of Nigeria prove; but France, Belgium, and Germany treated their Central African possessions as held byEuropean. feudal tenure, whereas the feudal system has not yet been formally accepted by the world as law in Central Africa. The Berlin Act laid it down that foreigners without distinction should enjoy in Central Africa with regard to the protectionof their persons and eff1:ds and with regard to the acquisitionand transfer of tht:ir movf1ble an6 real property the samP treat ment and rights as Nationals ; at the same time, all the P owers exercising sovereign rights o_r influence bound themselves to care for the improvement of the conditions of the moral and material well-·bt:>ing of the natives. When Belgium formally annexed the Congo Free State she was supposed to take on her shoulders all the obligations of the International Association of the Congo, but the International Bureau at Brussels was practically a dead letter office, and the solemn laws promulgated by the world in the name of Almighty God were neglcett:>d and forgotten. It almn::t looks as if the old International God were thoroughly angry with us for havir;g thus aet.ed. Prin:;e Bismarck told tht:> Berlin Congo Conference in 1885 that the evils of war would assume a specially fatal character if the natives of Africa were led to take sides in disputes between civilised Powers ; yet I am informed that on August 2, 1914, the Germans in German East Africa telegraphed to their military posts ordering the mobilisation of their native troops. A day or two afterwards England bombarded the German 11 port of Dar-es-Salaam, and these two acts smashed up the neutrality clauses of the Berlin Act providing that Central Africa should remain neutral in case of a European war. Spain's Intervention. Probably neither the German Comu1ander in German East Africa nor our Admiralty knew anything about these laws, but Belgium did, and at once called on the Powers to respect them, and Spam, acting as a neutral signatory of the Berlin Act, took up the question. There were many conversations, but on August 6, 1914, France told Belgium that she wished to get back tha_t part of the Congo which she had to give up during the Agadir incident, and that a success would not be difficult to obtain. On the following day England told Belgium that as German troopshad already taken the offensive, England was sending forces to overcome all opposition, at the same time undertaking to prevent any risings of the native population in Belgian Congo. The Spanish intervention, therefore, failed, and Germany complains that Spain never told her of the Belgian communication, because she would have acted differently had she known of the conversations among the Entente Powers and neutral signatories. Germany, however, a week later conceived the same idea as Belgium, and approached President Wilson on the subject. The President replied that as the Senare had refused to ratifythe Berlin Act, America would not depart from George Washing- ton's doctrine of non-interference with European quarrels. In the fall of 1915, however, the question came up again, and in the House of Common Mr. Bonar Law told us that the military position in East Africa was largely one of stalemate, and England admitted the very great de irability of ueutralising this region if only it were possible. America and llolland held conver~atiom; on the question, but they came to nought; perhaps at that time Germany wa pleased with the stalemate out there. This disappeared unJer General muts's influence, and to-day Central Africa is well nigh cleared of Germans. But it will never be the· same as before the war- the influence of the tribal chiefs will disappear, the tribes will split up, the white man's influence will be different, and the mis ionary will have to battle with new ideas which are surgingthrough the black mind. Some natives will have seen England, some France; some will notice our strong points, some our shortcomings; and we are to-dayface·l with new problems as to the introduction of firearms and munitions into entral Africa, the growth of liquor abuse, the