CONGO
F R EE
STATE
201
Power, in a convention signed on the 22nd of April 1884, to recognize the Association as a properly constituted state. Simultaneously, King Leopold had been ^TT'the6 nessoc o0tiating with tlle French Government, the ^Powers. A iati°n’s most serious rival, not only to obtain recognition but on various boundary questions, and on the 23rd April 1884 Colonel Strauch, the president of the Association, addressed to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs a Note in which he formally declared that the Association would not cede its possessions to any Power, “ except in virtue of. special conventions which may be concluded between France and the Association for fixing the limits and conditions of their respective action.” The Note further declared that, as a fresh proof of its friendly feeling towards France, the Association engaged to
give France the right of preference if, through unforeseen circumstances, it were compelled to sell its possessions. The right of pre-emption thus given to France was, by an exchange of Notes in April 1887, declared to be without prejudice to the right of Belgium to take over the possessions of the Congo Free State as a Belgian colony. Germany was the next Great Power to recognize the position of the Free State, on the 8th November 1884, and the same recognition was subsequently accorded by Great Britain on 16th December; Italy, 19th December; Austria-Hungary, 24th December; Holland, 27th December; Spain, 7th January, 1885; France and Russia, 5th February; Sweden and Norway, 10th February; Portugal, 14th February; and Denmark and Belgium, 23rd February. While negotiations with Germany for the recognition of
the status of the Congo Free State were in progress, Prince Bismarck issued invitations to the Powers to an International Conference at Berlin. The Conference assembled on the 15th of November 1884, and its deliberations ended on the 26 th of February of the following year by the signature of a General Act, wdiich dealt with the relations of the European Powers to other regions of Africa as well as the Congo basin. The provisions affecting the Congo may be briefly stated. A Conventional Basin of the Congo was defined, which comprised all the regions watered by the Congo and its affluents, including Lake Tanganyika, with its eastern tributaries, and in this Conventional Basin it was declared that “the trade of all nations shall enjoy complete freedom.” Freedom of navigation of the Congo and all its affluents was also secured, and differential dues on vessels and merchandise were forbidden. Trade
monopolies were prohibited, and provisions made for civilizing the natives, the suppression of the slave trade, and the protection of missionaries, scientists, and explorers. Provision was made for the Powers owning territory in the Conventional Basin to proclaim their neutrality. Only such taxes or duties were to be levied as had “ the character of an equivalent for services rendered to navigation itself ”; and it was further provided that (Article 16) “The roads, railways, or lateral canals which may be constructed with the special object of obviating the innavigability or correcting the imperfection of the river route on certain sections of the course of the Congo, its affluents, and other waterways, placed under a similar system as laid down in Article 15, shall be considered, in their quality of means of communication, as dependencies of this river and as equally open to the traffic of all nations. And as on the S. III.— 26
