Belgian ] Congo 73 LABOUR No effort has been made by the Government to develop the Congo by Indian labour, the employment of which the Indian Government would doubtless have refused to sanction, and its recruiting of African labour from outside the territories has been merely sporadic, for definite public works which required men of skill. The latest legislation on the recruitment of labour is a great improvement on the earlier legislation. It applies to all engagements of natives of the Congo and the neighbouring territories by a non-native of the Congo. The contract must be in writing ; the con ditions must be stated clearly ; the master must normally house and feed the labourer, and pay his wage monthly ; no contract can exceed three years ; if for a period over three months it must be submitted to the visa of a Government officer, who must assure himself that the employé understands the conditions. A contract may be enforced civilly, in which case, however, imprisonment cannot be inflicted ; criminally it can be enforced by penalties up to 7 days' imprison ment or 200 frs. fine, and a decree of February 9, 1912, prescribes a summary procedure under which a Terri torial Administrator may order a native to be sent back to his master if he is still bound by his contract of service.

There are apparently no available statistics to show the number of natives who enter or leave the Congo. The extent of European immigration can only be gauged from the estimate of the European population already given (p. 18) . It is obvious that the European immi grants, though numerically a negligible fraction of the total population , are, nevertheless, in their capacity not of labourers but of employers of native labour, the chief factor in the economic development of the country. In the Congo, as distinct from Katanga, there is no prospect of a large influx of white settlers,