Thoughtful  Belgians  are  reckoning  all  this  up.  They
realise  that  the  temporary  "  prosperity  "  of  the  Congo —
that  is  to  say,  what  passes,  for  prosperity,  the  gold  in
the  shape  of  rubber  rolling  out  of  it — depends  exclu-
sively upon  the  system  of  oppression  and  tyranny  to
which  the  natives  are  subjected.  They  know  that  the
public  edifices  which  are  being  reared  in  Brussels  as  an
advertisement  for  the  King,  out  of  Congo  rubber  and
Congo  loans,  and  which  Belgium  does  not  require,
Belgium  will  have  to  pay  for  if  she  annexes:  and  pay
through  the  nose  for  since  they  have  been  constructed
regardless  of  economy. ^  They  know  that  with  every  year
that  passes  the  indebtedness  of  the  King's  ent-erprise
increases,  and  with  it  the  prospective  liabilities  of  Bel-
gium. They  know  that  money  has  been  borrowed  at
28  per  cent,  discount,  and  that  Belgium,  if  she  annexes,
will  be  mulcted  to  that  extent  with  the  bankers  who  have
financed  the  King.
Such,  then,  is  the  position  in  which  Belgium  finds
herself,  thanks  to  the  complicity  of  her  Government  with
Leopold  Africanus.  The  Clerical  (or  Conservative)  party
has  blindly  followed  M,  de  Smet  de  Naeyer  at  the  price
of  the  abandonment  by  the  King  of  his  former  agitation
in  favour  of  the  personal  military  system  of  which  ho
was  once  so  strong  an  advocate.^  It  has  given  him
carte  blanche  so  far  as  the  Congo  is  concerned,  and  only
now  is  that  Party  beginning  to  realise  the  abyss  which
yawns  beneath  its  feet  and  the  country's.
