t, aggressive. When Belgium wants something done
she instinctively turns to him. In 1920, after the delay in fixing the
German reparation embarrassed the country, and liquid cash was
imperative, he left Brussels on three days' notice and within a
fortnight from the time he reached New York had negotiated a
fifty-million-dollar loan. He is as potent in official life as in
finance for as Special Minister of State without portfolio he is a real
power behind a real throne.

Although Francqui is a director in the Societe Generale, he is also what
we would call Chairman of the Board of Banque d'Outremer. This shows
that the well-known institution of "community of interests" is not
confined to the United States. With Jadot he represents the Societe in
the Forminiere Board. I have used these two men to illustrate the type
represented by the Belgian financial kings. I could mention various
others. They include Alexander Delcommune, famous as Congo fighter and
explorer, who is one of the leading figures of the Banque d'Outremer;
Edmond Solvay, the industrial magnate, and Edward Bunge, the Antwerp
merchant prince. Almost without exception they and their colleagues have
either lived in the Congo, or have been guided in their fortunes by it.

You have now had the historical approach with all personal side-lights
to the hour when America actually invaded the Congo. As soon as Leopold
and Ryan finally got together the king said, "The Congo must have
American engineers. They are the best in the world." Thus it came about
that Central Africa, like South Africa, came under the galvanizing hand
of the Yankee technical expert. At Kimberley and Johannesburg, however,
the task was comparatively easy. The mines were accessible and the
country was known. With Central Africa it was a different and more
dangerous matter. The land was wild, hostile natives abounded on all
sides, and going in was like firing a shot in the dark.

The American invasion was in two sections. One was the group of
engineers headed by Sydney H. Ball and R. D. L. Mohun, known as the
Ball-Mohun Expedition, which conducted the geological investigation. The
other was in charge of S. P. Verner, an American who had done
considerable pioneering in the Congo, and devoted itself entirely to
rubber. The latter venture was under the auspices of the American Congo
Company, which expected to employ the Mexican process in the Congo.
After several years the attempt was abandoned alth