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 from first to last, been withheld as far as possible from the British people. In the course of the debates in the Chamber, the Socialists and the Radicals joined forces. The gravamen of the charge against the Government was that it was upholding a system shameful for the honour of France, and that it was guilty of concealing atrocities "less to be imputed to men than to the 'System' itself, of which they constitute the expression." A large number of official documents were cited. It was conclusively shown that the practice of seizing women and children as hostages from villages and towns short in the rubber tribute had become "general in the Congo for the past five years," and that this organised warfare upon the helpless section of the population had become, as in the Congo Free State, one of the recognised media of coercion, "regarded as the natural complement of all disciplinary measures." These wretched women, thus torn from their homes, served other ends. They were used to attract, or to retain, the services of carriers to carry the foodstuffs and general equipment of the numerous "disciplinary expeditions" traversing the country in every direction, and to satisfy the lusts of the native soldiers. "I am sending you," ran one of the official documents quoted, a communication from one official to another, "to-day, by canoe, 54 women and children for Fort Possel. No doubt the presence of a considerable number of women will soon attract the men…" Grafted upon the demand for rubber came the demand for carriers to convey the stuff from long distances to the river banks, and also for the purposes mentioned above. Districts which did not produce rubber were taxed in carriers, i.e., in human labour, and became exhausted and drained of their population. An official report stated:

Another official report spoke of the "awful mad terror of this race, which a few years ago was rich, numerous and prosperous, grouped in immense villages, to-day