Address delivered by Mr. Renkin, minister of the colonies on the occasion of the opening of the Congo Museum, at Tervuren

by Jules Renkin

Sire: I have the honor to welcome Your Majesty on behalf of the Government. I thank him for the splendor which his august presence lends to this solemn inauguration.

The universal exposition of 1910 offered Belgium the opportunity of showing the place which the colony of Belgian Kongo has already taken in our national life. This museum, the pavilions and the halls of the colonial exposition of the Kongo surrounding it, will make the visitor appreciate the fine efforts realized by our compatriots in Africa.

The missionaries will present the record of their admirable apostleship. The scientific and political results due to the persevering energy of our officers and of our administrations, the economical results obtained by the initiative and courage of our industrial and commercial representatives will be adequately displayed. Here shall also be exhibited the first steamboats cast upon the High River, the locomotives and the trains which, after climbing the passes of the Mounts Cristal at the cost oftentimes of heroic toils, have to-day penetrated into the very heart of the African Continent reaching the regions of the Manyema, where Livingstone beheld the horrors of slave trading and where the bravery of our countrymen destroyed forever the Arabian domination.

The entire Belgian Nation has collaborated in the work of which the museum of the Belgian Congo and the colonial exposition offer to the international public an eloquent compendium; but the great figure of King Leopold II towers above all.

In establishing the independent State and in creating the vast colony of the Kongo King Leopold II gave a new impulse to national activity, threw open to his people an unlimited field, and gloriously enlarged for it the roads of the future.

Now that we have come to inaugurate the superb monument which he wanted to erect on this spot it behooves us to salute the great memory of the extraordinary man, who, despite the feeble means at his disposal and the obstacles which he had to overcome, succeeded in awakening in his people the great and daring initiatives of the Flemish of the Hanse.

The idea of establishing in Tervueren the museum of Belgian Kongo corresponds to the tradition which, at each epoch in our history, seems to reserve an important part for this ancient and picturesque locality.

Before mounting the episcopalian throne at Liege, which he was later to illustrate, St. Hubert lived here long. He came back to die in this forest site which he loved.

Tervueren became later a freehold land of the Dukes of Brabant. They made of it their summer residence. It was in the castle of Tervueren, rebuilt by his wife, Marguerite Plantagenet, that Duke John II of Brabant signed the famous charter promulgated at Cortenberg, and one of the most interesting monuments of our medieval public law.

Neglected under the Dukes, of Bourgogne, Tervueren saw its splendor revived when the reign of Albert and Isabel had come to stimulate our national hopes. Albert and Isabel greatly enlarged the ancient castle and placed therein a vast hall of paintings, comprising over 200 masterpieces. The good archduchess died at Tervueren on the 30th of November, 1633. More than a century later Prince Charles of Lorraine established in turn his residence on this site, and, prompted by the desire to give impetus to Belgian industry, then very much depressed, he created here establishments for printing on cotton, a manufactory of wallpaper, and a factory of chinaware. Thus in the eighteenth century Tervueren was one of the points whence radiated over our country the civilizing evangelization.

Under the Dukes of Brabant it became one of the centers of feudal life. Under Albert and Isabel it possessed the museum of our artistic life. The initiative of Charles of Lorraine made of it one of the centers of the reviving Belgian industry.

It was therefore a just thought which established here, at the time when the colonial expansion is affirming itself, the museum of Belgian Kongo. Three international expositions mark the principal steps of its organization.

The first collection, which constituted the embryo of the museum, established primarily on the Place du Trone, was gathered together on the occasion of the Antwerp Exposition of 1894.

In 1897, at the time of the Brussels Exposition, the independent State created the Museum of Tervueren, and a few years later King Leopold II began the construction of the monument that Your Majesty deigns to inaugurate at the time when the Universal Brussels Exposition of 1910 has just opened its gates.

The new organization, which it has pleased the King to give the museum by his decree of January 1, 1910, enlarges and completes its scope. To the section of ethnography and to the section of natural science have been added the section of economical sciences, the section of moral and political sciences, and the section of photographic documentation and vulgarization, which group now for the first time their collections before the public eye. The Annales du Musee du Congo, under the auspices of the museum, is a prosperous and universally appreciated scientific publication, counting among its collaborators the most eminent scientists.

The progress already accomplished is considerable. The Government believes, however, that the work is only at its outset. In order to incessantly continue and improve this work, the Government knows that it can count on the cooperation of the personnel and the help of the committee of superintendence, the members of which it has pleased the King to choose from among the men who have made their mark in the various branches of science.

It is important that the scientific work which is being elaborated here be worthy of the work of colonization and of civilization, of which Belgium has just assumed the honor, and that it realizes perfectly the noble thought of its august initiator.

The museum of the Kongo must present the synthesis of all information relating to the colony, interest the great public therein supply industry and commerce with all useful indications, inspire them with new initiatives, offer to scientists a documentation as complete as possible, and, by means of the alluring and suggestive spectacle of results obtained, dissipate prejudices, enlighten the good will of the many, awaken in the hearts the desire to collaborate in the great task of civilization in which Belgium, despite all hardships, will succeed in marking with deep imprint of its genius.

The economical aspect of the colonial problem is of great importance. From this standpoint the museum of the Kongo offers to our compatriots useful teachings. They will be better able to see there the resources which the Kongo offers to their activity. They will note, for instance, that the foundation of the colony determined in Belgium the creation of 191 industrial establishments and that it furnished a permanent supply of material to 431 other firms; but in the thought of the Government the economical standpoint remains subordinated to that of the moral progress—the supreme aim of colonization.

On the historical day of his joyful entry, before the-chambers assembled, Your Majesty pronounced words the echo of which will resound throughout your reign. “For a people desirous of justice,” said Your Majesty, “a colonizing mission can only be a mission of high civilization.” Thus Your Majesty proclaimed, with the enthusiastic approbation of the whole Nation, that all the efforts of a nation for economical expansion, that all the work of man for the more rational occupation and the more profound knowledge of the globe are without value unless they tend, first of all, to widen the reign of justice and of peace.

The firm will to worthily prepare himself for the weighty obligations of sovereignty inspired Your Majesty with the desire to familiarize himself with the distant empire that Providence destined him to govern. He journeyed through it from one frontier to the other. And during these long days of travel the spectacle of this new nature, of these immense and rich territories, of these various populations, sympathetic, notwithstanding their feebleness and their destitution, spoke to his heart and confirmed in his soul for the honor of the Belgian country and the salvation of Africa, the design of being one day the beloved chief, who would complete the grand work of the founder of the colony in working with all his might, by means of the most severe equity, to raise the black race toward welfare, light, and goodness. The unanimous sentiment of the nation mingles here with the sentiments of the King. In annexing the Kongo Belgium has wished to assume the protection of the people who occupy it.

The valiance of its sons has delivered Central Africa of the scourge of slave trading. Its sovereign action must transform these vast regions penetrating them, by the development of commerce, the methodical action of the administration, and the researches of science with the evermore active influence of European civilization.

Belgium is legitimately proud of the work undertaken by it in Africa. Resolved to pursue it to the end, it hopes to deserve the admiration of all and that this monument, erected here to the progress of colonial science by the munificence of a great King and the labor of so many men of high knowledge will largely contribute toward this result. For to the nation assembled in Brussels this monument will tell of all the great things accomplished out there by those whose devotion has conquered for their country a new empire and announce the impetus that, under the guidance of Your Majesty, the affection and labor of Belgium hold in store for the Belgian Kongo.

I beg Your Majesty to declare open the Museum of Belgian Kongo and the colonial section of the Kongo of the Brussels Exposition.