38 ( No. 99 HISTORY > Couronne, a vast territory between the Kasai and Ruki rivers, covering about 112,000 square miles, which was treated as the private property of the King. The charges of maladministration multiplied until in July 1904 King Leopold was forced to appoint a com mission of inquiry to investigate the condition of the natives, and, if necessary, to recommend reforms. The report of the Commissioners was published in December 1905 ; it went far to justify the charges levelled at the Congo administration, and bore fruit when the King signed, in 1906, a number of decrees embodying various reforms in the Government of the Free State . Leopold, however, qualified his action by intimating (June 1906 ) that certain conditions would attach to the Congo inheritance, among them the duty of respecting the arrangements known as the Fondations, by which he had provided for the establishment of the Domaine de la Couronne and the Domaine privé de l'État.

( 13 ) CESSION OF THE CONGO TO BELGIUM A crisis was manifestly approaching, and the special commission, known as the Commission of XVII , appointed in 1907 , carried, after a severe struggle, a colonial bill, which replaced the absolutism of the King by effective parliamentary control. On Novem ber 28 , 1907, a treaty was signed for the cession of the Congo Free State to Belgium . This treaty stipulated for the maintenance of the Fondations, but eventu ally, under severe pressure from Great Britain, the King gave way ; and on March 5, 1908, an additional act was signed at Brussels annulling the clauses in the treaty of cession concerning the Fondations. Shortly afterwards, on August 20, the treaty of annexa tion, the additional act, and the colonial law, were voted by substantial majorities. On September 9 , 1908, the three measures passed the Senate, and on Novem