The three authorities whose testimony was given in the preceding chapter are all distinguished travellers of British nationality. It is now proposed to lay before the reader the opinions held upon Belgian Administration in the Congo by three well-known Americans—Mr. James Gustavus Whiteley of Baltimore, member of the Institute of International Law, who has represented the United States Government at several international congresses; the Rev. W. H. Leslie, a missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union; and Mr. Mohun, a former United States Consul at Boma. MR. JAMES G. WHITELEY It is unfortunate that so many false impressions about the Congo have been accepted without examination. For example, there is a popular belief that the King runs the Congo “for revenue only,” and that he oppresses the natives in order to extort money from them. The exact opposite is the truth. The King receives no revenue from the Congo Government; on the contrary the State owes its very existence to the generosity of the King, who advanced several million dollars to keep the Government going in its early struggle for existence. It is true that there are in the Congo extensive Crown lands, the revenue from which belongs to the King, but His Majesty refuses to take the receipts from this land and has turned the money into a fund for the erection of schools, the encouragement of science, and similar purposes. He does not even manage the fund himself, but has placed it in the hands of three trustees. I have seen the statement in several newspapers that the Congo State was created by the Berlin Conference in 1885 and placed in the hands of King Leopold for administration, the Powers reserving a sort of right of guardianship over it. This is entirely erroneous. The Congo was a sovereign State before the Berlin Conference was thought of. The first official acknowledgment of the new State came from the United States in the spring of 1884. It was afterwards formally recognised by the other nations, and it entered the Berlin Conference on an equality with the other Powers. It has never placed itself under the guardianship of any Power or collection of Powers. It has no connection with Belgium except the fact that King Leopold happens to be king of each of them. The two Governments are entirely independent.