In fact, this system renders light for the native his obligations as a soldier. We do not desire any other proof than those four thousand volunteers who are actually enrolled, and those numerous re-engagements, which show the taste of the native for the profession of arms. It was not with an army of malcontents that the State could have carried out its anti-slavery campaign. The State continues to interest itself in its soldiers after their term has expired. The time-expired men, sent back to their homes at its expense, together with their wives and children (if there are any), are the object of special protection, and receive concessions of land in a station at their own choice. [Illustration: Native Canoes, Lower Congo.] [Illustration: Fishermen, Uvvia.] The latest report of the Vice-Governor-General (July, 1904) indicates the great improvement to which the Public Force has attained since the date of Baron Van Eetvelde’s statement of the system which prevailed in 1897. Local experience in savage lands should be the foundation of the reforms imposed. In the case of the State’s Public Force, many local conditions, traits, and prejudices, and much inaptitude, were encountered to modify or extend those principles of police control which the State’s earlier administration had adopted with characteristic hopefulness. M. Fuchs sets forth the present position of the Force with considerable detail and suggestion: The Government is aware that the military service of the black race must be the object of constant watchfulness, in order that it may be impossible for them to practise the cruelties to which their primitive instincts might impel them. The officers and commanders of the troops have been often warned that they must show themselves inflexible guardians of the observance of those instructions, which have been issued for the protection of the natives against any possible abuse on the part of soldiers left in isolated positions or subject to insufficient control. Instructions have been given to this effect—and I am happy to be able to say that they have been almost everywhere faithfully carried out. Any contravention of the order forbidding the despatch of armed soldiers under the command of black officers is also severely punished, and may entail even the dismissal of the agent in fault. These measures have been completed by the formal prohibition of the employment of auxiliaries under no matter what circumstances.