It was, therefore, stipulated that in those parts of Africa between the twentieth parallel of north latitude and the twenty-second parallel of south latitude the importation of firearms, and especially of rifles and weapons of precision, powder, balls, and cartridges, should be greatly restricted, and as far as possible prohibited. The only exceptions in later articles to this prescription were made in favour of “measures directly by governments for arming of a _force publique_ and the organisation of their defence.” [Sidenote: Attitude of the Powers.] To carry out the onerous duties imposed by the Brussels Act upon all the interested Powers required more than a Conference and its lofty ideals and appropriate resolutions. By the Berlin Act import duties had been prohibited in the Congo Basin only as an experiment. The attitude of the Powers towards this question was now more enlightened and more reasonable. Experience, and admiration for King Leopold’s rapid achievements in the development of the new State, combined, in the face of the slave-raiding enemy, to predispose the representatives of the Powers to a rational view of the practical necessities of governments which were called upon to establish order and a civil community upon the trail of the murderous slave-chaser. [Sidenote: Import Duties.] At the thirteenth session of the Conference, held on May 10, 1890, it was proposed that the stipulation of the Berlin Conference prohibiting all import duties for twenty years should be withdrawn, and that the “assenting Powers having possessions or protectorates in the Conventional Basin of the Congo shall be at liberty, so far as authority to this end is required, to establish duties on imported goods, the scale of which shall not exceed a rate equivalent to ten per cent. _ad valorem_ at the port of entry, always excepting spirituous liquors.” Applying especially to spirituous liquors are the provisions of articles 90 to 95 of the General Act. In supporting this measure, Baron Lambermont said: