The Campaign Begins
As Morel sought support, he established contacts with missionaries, diplomatic and military officials in addition to well-known writers and politicians including Sir Charles Dilke, an English politician, Alfred Emmott, a British politician and businessman and Alice and John Harris, English campaigners and politicians.
Sir Charles Dilke
(Roger Vaughan Picture Library) |
Alfred Emmott
(New York Public Library) |
John Harris
(The Times) |
With Dilke, Emmott, Alice and John Harris, and others, on March 23, 1904, Morel formed the Congo Reform Association (CRA), which aimed to restore to the Congo natives the rights guaranteed to them by the Berlin Act.
"The goal of the Congo Reform Association is to mobilize public opinion to pressure the British government into taking actions that would result in: |
“The Congo evil has grown to colossal dimensions, and it can only be put an end to by an organized public opinion which shall insist upon the rulers of civilised mankind terminating a wrong which has been allowed to reach its present state.”
- The Congo Reform Association, First Public Manifesto
- The Congo Reform Association, First Public Manifesto