On September 17, 1903, the Government of the Congo Free State delivered its reply[51] and, pursuing the same course as the British Government had followed, sent it to all the interested Powers. The attitude of Europe concerning the issue thus joined may be gathered from the silence of the Powers signatory to the Berlin Act, and the press comment which the two dispatches evoked. The _Morning Advertiser_, London, a conservative organ, referring to the British dispatch, said: A weaker official document we do not ever remember to have read.... The use of the word “alleged” in the title of the document gives the key to its whole tone. The note sets forth various “alleged” shortcomings of the Congo Government, and then says, lamely: “His Majesty’s Government do not know precisely to what extent these accusations may be true.” Surely this is a very serious matter—to accuse the Administration of a friendly State of inhumanity and “systematic oppression,” and then to admit that we do not know whether the accusations are true. The leading article in the _Times_ (London) of the same day described the Congo State’s reply as “weak, inconclusive, and confused.” While Lord Lansdowne’s note had been published in its entirety, the longer reply on behalf of the Congo Free State was accorded scant space in the British press. From _Black and White_ (London), November 21, 1903: To pile Pelion on Ossa in the way of accusation only to encounter a rebuff by being non-suited, scarcely recommends itself to the judgment as a course either dignified or statesmanlike. Yet in the present instance the fact that the English Note remains without a _single_ answer from the twelve States to whom it was addressed three months after it was despatched, shows beyond question the trend of Continental opinion. In the _Standard_ (London) of October 24, 1903, the following utterance would imply a threat: The Belgian Administration objects to submitting questions of internal government to arbitration, but it would do well to remember that there is an alternative of a still more unpleasant character. On September 19th the _Morning Advertiser_ (London) has the following to say by way of insight into British desires in Congoland: Nearly twenty years have passed since a great Englishman came through the Dark Continent and down the Congo, and it _has always seemed a strange thing to other Englishmen that the great river of Central Africa should have remained ever since under the domination of the smallest country in Europe_.