The revenue from the Private Domain is derived from the State’s direct exploitation of its lands. Rubber and ivory are its chief products at the present time. Various kinds of wood abound in its forests, and cocoa and coffee plantations, experimental farms, live-stock ranches, agricultural areas, all are being developed under the direct supervision of State agents. The question which is periodically enlivened concerning this governmental scheme for acquiring necessary revenue is: Can the State, in occupation of its own lands in the Congo Basin, develop the land by direct cultivation, or _en régie_ (by trustees), for the benefit of the State budget, which, in its integrity, is devoted to increase the power of the State to civilise and elevate its native people? There can be no doubt about the State’s right to develop territory which for lack of private initiative and capital would produce nothing for the benefit of the society for which the State has been created. This right has been recognised not only by the Powers at the Berlin Conference in reference to Central Africa, but, in varying aspects, by all civilised countries in reference to other parts of the globe. Belgian, French, English, Russian, Swiss, and Italian jurists have considered this question at great length. The opinions of Messrs. Van Berchem, Van Maldeghem, de Paepe, John Westlake, K.C., Sir Horace Davey, K.C., de Martens, Barboux, Nys, Pierantoni, and Azcarate, besides the weight of opinion expressed by United States authorities which have been consulted, all concede the State’s right to develop its territory for the benefit of a treasury devoted to the welfare of its people. Moreover, this scheme of self-development is not peculiar to the Free State. France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal declared unoccupied land to be the property of the State. The establishment of that principle at once implies the adoption of that other by which the State may improve its own property and turn it from a wilderness into a productive garden. In addition to innumerable earlier decrees by the Governments surrounding the Congo Free State, many of which are set out in the _Bulletin Officiel_ of the Independent State of the Congo for June, 1903, new ordinances, amplifying and extending the early decrees, have been recently (September 20 and October 23, 1904) put into operation. Their inclusion herein would unduly extend the text of this volume. A brief indication of their provisions will be found in the Appendix under the title: _Features of the Land System in the African Colonies of Germany, Great Britain, France, and Portugal_.[43] From the _Neue Hamburgische Börsen Halle_, 20 October, 1904, we quote the following comment upon the German decree of the same date, inasmuch as it reveals what, in general, is the European opinion of the British criticism of the Congo State land system: