44 (No. 99 PRESENT CONDITIONS missionaries attacked the Catholics. They were obviously due to a wholly wrong system ; and so late as 1912 the same complaints were echoed by M. Vandervelde, who had himself travelled in the Congo. It is characteristic of the King that, far from giving any effect to the criticisms made by his own Commission, on May 26, 1906, he concluded a con cordat with the Pope, under which he undertook to provide land gratis for Catholic missions in return for their undertaking educational work . Protestant mis sionaries, on the other hand, complained with truth that their efforts to obtain land by purchase were defeated by the State - an anomaly remedied by the Belgian Government in 1912.

Present Position of the Missions The Charter provides for the free exercise of all forms of religion, and the holding of land is made legal to the different denominations in connexion with their work. In the case of the Roman Catholics an agree ment with the Holy See of May 26, 1906, provides for grants larger than the usual limit of holding ( 100 or even 200 hectares as against 50 hectares) in return for the giving of education ; priests appointed as chaplains receive pay, and a decree of June 3 , 1906, authorizes the appointment of priests who, after celebrating the ecclesiastical marriage of natives, may perform also the requisite civil ceremony. In practice , since the inauguration of the new regime, the difficulties experienced by Protestant missions in obtaining land appear to have been removed, while these missions, by abstaining from seeking to make artisans or agriculturists of their converts, avoid the attacks for abuse of authority which have been levelled against Catholic missions.

In 1908 , 211 Protestant missionaries were at work