3. From the present time the Belgian State will receive from the Independent State of the Congo such information as it judges desirable, on the economical, commercial, and financial situation of the latter. It may specially ask for communication of the budgets of receipts and expenses, and of the customs dues both on imports and exports. This information is to be given, with the sole object of enlightening the Belgian Government, and the latter will not in any way interfere in the administration of the Independent State of the Congo, which will continue to be attached to Belgium only by the personal union of the two crowns. Nevertheless, the Congo State engages not to contract any new loan hereafter, without the assent of the Belgian Government. 4. If at the fixed time Belgium decides not to accept the annexation of the Congo State, the sum of twenty-five million francs lent, inscribed in the ledger of its debt, would not become demandable until after a fresh period of ten years, but it should bear in the interval interest at the rate of 3½ per cent., payable every six months, and even before this term the Independent State of the Congo should devote to partial repayments all the sums obtained from cessions of land or the mines of the domain. [Illustration: The Governor’s House, Ponthierville (Upper Congo).] Long before the date of the Brussels Conference and the Convention just concluded, King Leopold had written to his minister, M. Beernaert, a letter clearly indicating his unselfish purpose in developing the Congo State. The persons who charge the King of the Belgians with governing the Congo for his personal benefit might temper their mendacity by the fact that this letter is dated 5th August, 1889, nearly a year before the conclusion of the Brussels Conference. Having regard to the false charges busily purveyed in respect of his Majesty’s true intentions towards his people and the Congo State, it seems but just to quote it: 5th August, 1889. DEAR MINISTER [M. Beernaert].—I have never ceased to call the attention of my countrymen to the necessity of extending their view to countries beyond the sea. History teaches that States of limited size have a moral and material interest in stretching beyond their narrow frontiers. Greece founded on the shores of the Mediterranean opulent cities, centres of art and civilisation. Venice, later on, established its greatness on the development of its maritime and commercial relations, not less than on its political successes. Holland possesses in the Indies thirty millions of subjects, who exchange the commodities of the tropics for the productions of the mother country.