Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Flourishing on the Congo on the Year of Grace 1906

This book is written with the object of putting into the hands of the British public, at a cost which places it within the reach of many, a brief and up-to-date narrative of the Congo tragedy, avoiding side issues, and dealing with the main features of the story. Much of it will be new to all save those who have followed the Congo question as students, and even as regards the latter it is hoped that the cumulative force of recent revelations here presented in their natural sequence may lead to an even clearer perception of the problem. A crisis in this history has arrived. The Report of the Commission of Inquiry, wrung from King Leopold by the pressure of British public opinion. Professor Cattier’s volume, and the five days’ debate on these two publications which took place last February in the Belgian House of Representatives,’’ have removed the last doubts which remained as to the accuracy of the charges publicly brought against the personal, uncontrolled, and unfettered management of the independent Congo state by King Leopold. Contention as to facts has disappeared. The controversial stage has, in that respect, gone for ever.