. Cattier, _op. cit._ p. 88.]

Very many Belgians object strongly to the building up of an _imperium in
imperio _in their land; and the wealth which the ivory and rubber of the
Congo brings into their midst (not to speak of the stock-jobbing and
company-promoting which go on at Brussels and Antwerp), does not blind
them to the moral responsibility which the Belgian people has indirectly
incurred. It is true that Belgium has no legal responsibility, but the
State which has lent a large sum to the Congo Government, besides
providing the great majority of the officials and exploiters of that
territory, cannot escape some amount of responsibility. M. Vandervelde,
leader of the Labour Party in Belgium, has boldly and persistently
asserted the right of the Belgian people to a share in the control of
its eventual inheritance, but hitherto all the efforts of his colleagues
have failed before the groups of capitalists who have acquired great
monopolist rights in Congoland.

Having now traced the steps by which the Congolese Government reached
its present anomalous position, we will proceed to give a short account
of its material progress and administration.

No one can deny that much has been done in the way of engineering. A
light railway has been constructed from near Vivi on the Lower Congo to
Stanley Pool, another from Boma into the districts north of that
important river port. Others have been planned, or are already being
constructed, between Stanley Falls and the northern end of Lake
Tanganyika, with a branch to the Albert Nyanza. Another line will
connect the upper part of the River Congo with the westernmost affluent
of the River Kasai, thus taking the base of the arc instead of the
immense curve of the main stream. By the year 1903, 480 kilometres of
railway were open for traffic, while 1600 more were in course of
construction or were being planned. It seems that the first 400
kilometres, in the hilly region near the seaboard, cost 75,000,000
francs in place of the 25,000,000 francs first estimated[469].
Road-making has also been pushed on in many directions. A flotilla of
steamers plies on the great river and its chief affluents. In 1885 there
were but five; the number now exceeds a hundred. As many as 1532
kilometres of telegraphs are now open. The exports advanced from
1,980,441 francs in 1885-86 to 50,488,394 francs in 1901-02, mainly
owing to the immense trade in rubber, of which more anon; the imports
from 9,1