Speech to the Belgian Parliament by M. Woeste (27 February 1906 )

Gentlemen, the debate which is before the House was opened by a prejudiced speech (protests on the extreme left). …Everything was blamed, everything was condemned…. I was one of the first to help, with my vote and my voice, the Congo enterprise; and I remain attached to that enterprise, whose grandeur I cannot, without injustice fail to recognize. The Commission of Inquiry itself admitted that it had felt, in travelling in the Congo a sense of wonderment.

Is it not true that, twenty-five years ago the Congo was delivered over to murders, to pillage, to cannibalism, to the slave trade, to hateful superstitions? Is it not true that it was a closed continent, and that to-day it is open, thanks to the initiative of the King of the Belgians? Is it not true that the Congo State, constituted in the heart of Africa boasts of a regular system of administration? Is it not true, too, that all moral civilization and religious interests are therein protected? Is it not true that numerous ways of communication have been opened, allowing relations between the natives, and relations between the natives and foreigners? Is it not true that commercial relations have been established between the Congo State and the greater part of the European States, and Belgium, and that our compatriots feel the salutary effects of this?

…that Belgium might one may renounce the Congo would be an ingratitude towards the Sovereign which created it. It would be for Belgium a real moral decadence, because she would be renouncing to contribute to the work of civilization in Africa. It would also be an immense deception for our compatriots who have considered, and who still consider, the Congo a field of activity open to their efforts and their labors.

…[H]ow great the error of those who think that in a day, or even in a few years, a barbarous country can be transformed into a civilized one. Civilization has had a struggle there. It has had a struggle elsewhere, against inveterate habits, against profoundly low customs, against influences of education and environment, and it is only by long continuity of effort that the natives can be raised from this degraded state. Remember, gentlemen, the origin of all European Sates. … What illimitable disorders, what crimes were committed for several centuries, which only disappeared under the persistent influence of Christianity. History teaches us that it is only in the long run that public conscience can be improved, and customs humanized. …

Alongside this primary error there is a secondary one, and that is the idea that a barbarous country can be governed along the lines of a civilized country. … Where you have an advanced state of civilization, force must be set aside as much as possible. In barbarous countries, among infant peoples, coercion is often necessary; authority must be felt, in order to be respected. It is due to the influence of the two errors which I am pointing out that so many inaccurate judgments have been pronounced, and are still pronounced, on the Congo State. The Conto State is looked upon, and I understand the desire up to a certain point, as another Belgium. I hope, gentlemen, it may be so one day; but, before this day comes, we must admit the necessity in which the governing element finds itself of often employing means other than those which are current in our civilized Europe. …

I must point out that a country like the Congo cannot be governed like a country with a Parliamentary system. A representative system is fitted for advanced civilizations, but not for civilizations in a primitive state. Emile Augier placed in the mouth of Richelieu these words: "Despotism alone brings order out of chaos." I do not maintain that despotism should use any kind of means to do so, but I maintain that it is from personal power that energetic initiative, rapidly executed, can be expected, which obtains in a few years magnificent results such as those obtained in the Congo.

This is what must be recognized. This is what common sense and history teach us … It was never denied that abuses existed in the Congo, but to this admission was added that it was almost impossible that there should not be any. These abuses arise from the immensity of the territory, from the small number of Belgians who administrate it, from ingrained habits which object to innovations introduced by the Belgians.

[Full debate here: https://archive.org/details/verbatimreportof00belgiala]

"Speech by M. Woeste." Verbatim Report of the Five Days' Congo Debate in the Belgian House of Representatives. Translated E. D. Morel. Liverpool, UK: John Richardson & Sons, Printers, 1906, pp. 73-76.