Concerning the Congo standing army of 14,000 natives, as to which some criticism is uttered by the same persons, we need only indicate that the State Government is so well respected in the Congo Basin that it is able to control its vast territory with only seven soldiers to every 625 square miles. We have no doubt that if the Congo governmental system had not included this meagre police force for the repression of tribal strife and the maintenance of order, its critics would have represented the Congo Government as unprepared to guarantee protection to persons and property, and as unable to maintain the integrity of its frontiers. The Congo army is recruited in conformity with the Belgian law of conscription, which is a restriction of the universal service in Continental Europe. When the Government enlisted a part of its army in a neighbouring colony it was requested to desist, the promises of England to permit such recruiting notwithstanding. Now the Congo army is characterised as barbarian! Doubtless the Congo Government would have no objection to recruit its army in China, as miners are recruited for the Transvaal. But would it thereby escape censure? We think not. Some things which are right and proper in a British colony become crimes when done in the Congo Free State. It is the earnest desire of the Belgian people, and those who are interested in the welfare and progress of the native population of Mid-Africa, that the good-will and respect of the people of the United States and their President may continue, by their sympathy, to enliven the devotion, energy, and sacrifice which the builders of the Congo Free State are expending upon races which but a few years ago were in a state of the wildest savagery. We are, Mr. President, with great respect, Your obedient servants, (Signed) A. DUFOURNY, _President of the Federation for the Defence of Belgian Interests Abroad_. [Sidenote: King Leopold Attacked.] At the Peace Congress held at Boston in October, 1904, to attend which was as much the reason of the visit to these shores of the Secretary of the Congo Reform Association as the presentation of a memorial to President Roosevelt, he recited his usual tirade against the Congo Government and the person of King Leopold with somewhat more than his customary unction; but his contentions were utterly demolished by the superior information and saner reasoning of his fellow-countryman, Mr. George Head, and by a letter which was read from Cardinal Gibbons (_vide_ Chap. xxxiv), warmly defending the aims and achievements of the Belgians in Central Africa. The net result of the Peace Conference to the Congophobes is to expose and appreciably weaken their conspiracy. [Sidenote: Conspiracy Fails.]