The general tone of the British press was in support of Lord Lansdowne’s Note, and intolerant of the Congo State’s reply. On the Continent, the weight of opinion favourably acknowledged the force of the Congo State’s reply. In France, Germany, Austria, and Italy certain British journals were severely criticised for suppressing the publication of all evidence favourable to Belgian rule in Congoland, for dignifying the fulminations of E. D. Morel, the penman of the merchants and shippers of Liverpool, the self-appointed coroner of the Congo, sitting in judgment upon the _disjecta membra_ which he so luridly and so falsely portrays in the books which the anti-Congo campaign incidentally serves to advertise. Brief quotations from the arguments of M. Étienne, the French Deputy, have been set forth in a previous chapter. Criticising the London _Times_ for its partisanship, the _Dépêche Coloniale_ of October 16, 1903 stated editorially: ... We invite the great journal [London _Times_] of the city to cease this chicanery which might discourage men whose task in Africa demands the co-operation of every one. In this task, in its success, we are all interested, and the fact of having opened to commerce the immense territory of the Congo should of itself spare Belgium the bitterness of misdirected criticism. In _La Liberté_ (Paris) the editor, referring to the Congo State’s reply, says: Now that we have before us the reply of the King of the Belgians, we may say that we have reason from every point of view to defend the Congo Free State against accusations as stupid as they are prejudiced. England may definitely renounce the hope that she had entertained of increasing her colonial empire by means of puerile calumnies. [Illustration: Mission of New Antwerp (Bangala).] The _Phare de la Loire_: We should not forget that a similar quarrel has been sought for with us [the French]. French concessionaires have had much trouble with two English houses—Holt & Company and Hatton & Cookson [Liverpool]—_whose agents had turned the natives away from French factories_ by offering them exorbitant wages. The _General Anzeiger_, October 30, 1903, is merely quoted to indicate the violence to which criticism of the British dispatch attained, not as a specimen of sound Teutonic reasoning nor of temperate commentary: Truly, when reading this one hardly credits one’s eyes. Here is what the English Government, whose officials are almost without exception discredited by reason of their rude, brutal, and often inhuman attitude towards natives; here is what is written [_sic_] on the faith of pure colonial gossip, of unauthenticated rumour. It is not ashamed to act thus—this very Government whose cruelties in the last African war are still too fresh in the memory.... It is impossible to say whether this cynical fashion of acting is more striking than the hypocrisy which makes us indignant....