Note 283 — Chapter XXXII · THE “TRADE” OF THE CONGO STATE

Apart from the large quantities of rifles, cap-guns, and ammunition imported into the Congo State for the arming and equipment of the soldiers, regular and irregular, it is morally certain, although not easy to prove, that the agents of the State and the agents of the Domaine Privé Companies encourage some of the biggest and most powerful chiefs of the Upper Congo to obtain ivory for them by presents of repeating-rifles and ammunition. In this connection a M. Léon. C. Berthier, writing from the French Upper Congo to the Paris organ La Dépêche Coloniale (issue July 16, 1902), says: “The M’Bomu (a branch of the Upper Ubanghi, which forms the frontier between the French and Congolese possessions, and which pursues its course to the Bahr-el-Ghazal), here very wide, forms the southern base of the square; this is the route where the ivory passes sous notre barbe to be sold to the Belgians on the other bank, who pay for it in Albini rifles, notwithstanding all the Acts of Berlin and Brussels, which forbid even the sale of percussion-cap guns!” The writer goes on to assert that he has documents to prove his statements.