Casement Report - Publicity 1895–1903

Publicity 1895–1903

For many years prior to the Casement Report there were reports from the Congo alleging widespread human rights abuses and exploitation of the native population. In 1895, the situation was reported to Dr Henry Grattan Guinness (1861–1915), a missionary. He established a mission and was promised action by King Leopold late in 1895, but nothing changed. H. R. Fox-Bourne of the Aborigines' Protection Society had published Civilisation in Congoland in 1902, and the journalist E. D. Morel also wrote several articles about the Leopoldian government's behaviour in the Congo Free State.

In 1903, two years after the death of King Leopold's cousin Queen Victoria, the British House of Commons passed a critical resolution on the Congo. Subsequently, the British consul at Boma in the Congo, the Irishman Roger Casement, was instructed to investigate. His report published in 1904, which confirmed Morel's accusations, had a considerable impact on public opinion.

Casement met and became friends with Morel just before the publication of his report in 1904 and realized that he had found the ally he had sought. Casement convinced Morel to establish an organization for dealing specifically with the Congo question. With Casement's assistance, he set up and ran the Congo Reform Association, which worked to end Leopold's control of the Congo Free State. Branches of the association were established as far away as the United States.