HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Edmund Dene Morel (born Georges Edmond Pierre Achille Morel Deville; 10 July 1873 – 12 November 1924) was a French-born British journalist, author,
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
and politician. As a young official at the shipping company
Elder Dempster Elder Dempster Lines was a UK shipping company that traded from 1932 to 2000, but had its origins in the mid-19th century. Founders Alexander Elder Alexander Elder was born in Glasgow in 1834. He was the son of David Elder, who for many ye ...
, Morel observed a fortune being made in the import of Congo rubber and the shipping out of guns and manacles. He correctly deduced that the rubber and other resources were being extracted from the Congolese by force and began to campaign to expose the abuses. In collaboration with
Roger Casement Roger David Casement (; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist executed by the United Kingdom for treason during World War I. He worked for the Britis ...
, Morel led a campaign against slavery in the
Congo Free State The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (), was a large Sovereign state, state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II, the const ...
, founded the
Congo Reform Association The Congo Reform Association (CRA) was a political and humanitarian activist group that sought to promote reform of the Congo Free State, a private territory in Central Africa under the absolute sovereignty of King Leopold II. Active from 19 ...
and published the ''West African Mail''. With the help of celebrities such as
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
and
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...
, the movement successfully pressured the Belgian King Leopold II to sell the Congo Free State to the Belgian government, ending some of the human rights abuses perpetrated under his rule. Morel played a significant role in the British
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
movement during the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, participating in the foundation of and becoming secretary of the
Union of Democratic Control The Union of Democratic Control was a British advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifism, pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. World Wa ...
, at which point he broke with the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
. In 1917 he was jailed for six months for his antiwar activism, which had a permanent effect on his health. After the war, he edited the journal ''Foreign Affairs'', through which he sharply criticised what he considered French aggression and mistreatment of the defeated
Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
. As part of his campaign against the French, he became the most important English proponent of the
Black Shame The Black Horror on the Rhine was a moral panic aroused in Weimar Germany and elsewhere concerning allegations of widespread crimes, especially sexual crimes, supposedly committed by Senegalese and other African soldiers serving in the French Arm ...
campaign, which accused black French troops of outrages against the population of the occupied
Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
. Morel was elected to Parliament in 1922 as a Labour candidate, defeating the incumbent
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
for his seat, and was re-elected in 1924, dying in office. Morel collaborated closely with future Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
and was considered for the post of Foreign Secretary, though he ultimately acted only as an unofficial adviser to MacDonald's government.


Background

Morel was born in the
Avenue d'Eylau The Avenue d'Eylau is a two-way street in Paris' 16th arrondissement. It connects the Place du Trocadéro-et-du-11-Novembre and the Place de Mexico, 300 metres to the north-west. It is named after Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Eylau ...
, Paris. His father, Edmond Pierre Marie Morel de Ville, was a French civil servant; his mother, Eliza Emmeline de Horne, was from an English
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
family and landed gentry - the De Hornes of Stanway Hall. Edmond died when his son was four years old, leaving no pension, and Emmeline subsequently fell out with her late husband's family. As a consequence, Emmeline changed her name to Deville and raised her son on her own. To remove her son from the family's influence, she worked as a teacher so that she could send him to boarding school at both Madras House school in
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
and later at
Bedford Modern School Bedford Modern School (often called BMS or simply Modern) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in Bedford Charity, The Harpur Trust, born from the financial endowme ...
. When Emmeline Deville fell ill in 1888, the money for school fees was no longer available and Edmund was forced to return to Paris to work as a bank clerk. He was able to move his mother back to England in 1891. Five years later, he successfully applied for naturalisation as a British subject and
anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...
his name. He married Mary Richardson that same year; they had five children. His daughter Stella married the Polish political activist
Joseph Retinger Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...
in 1926. They had two daughters.


Congo activism


Discoveries at Elder Dempster

In 1891, Morel obtained a clerkship with
Elder Dempster Elder Dempster Lines was a UK shipping company that traded from 1932 to 2000, but had its origins in the mid-19th century. Founders Alexander Elder Alexander Elder was born in Glasgow in 1834. He was the son of David Elder, who for many ye ...
, a
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
shipping firm.Dorward, David
"Morel, E.D."
In ''Colonialism: An International, Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia, Volume 1''. Eds. Melvin Eugene Page and Penny M. Sonnenburg. ABC-CLIO, 2003. p. 392.
To increase his income and support his family, from 1893 Morel began writing articles against French
protectionism Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations ...
, which was damaging Elder Dempster's business. He came to be critical of the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...
for not supporting the rights of Africans under colonial rule. His vision of Africa was influenced by the books of
Mary Kingsley ''For the English novelist, see Mary St Leger Kingsley.'' Mary Henrietta Kingsley (13 October 1862 – 3 June 1900) was an English ethnographer, writer and explorer who made numerous travels through West Africa and wrote several books on ...
, an English traveller and writer, which showed sympathy for African peoples and a respect for different cultures that was very rare amongst
Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...
at the time. Groups such as the
Aborigines' Protection Society The Aborigines' Protection Society (APS) was an international human rights organisation founded in 1837,
...
had already begun a campaign against alleged atrocities in Congo. Elder Dempster had a shipping contract with the
Congo Free State The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (), was a large Sovereign state, state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II, the const ...
for the connection between
Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
and Boma. Due to his knowledge of French, Morel was often sent to
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
, where he was able to view the internal accounts of the Congo Free State held by Elder Dempster. The knowledge that the Elder Dempster ships leaving Belgium for the Congo regularly carried guns, chains, ordnance and explosives, and articles which were remote from trade purposes, while ships arriving from the colony came back full of valuable products such as raw rubber and
ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...
, led him to the conclusion that Belgian
King Leopold II Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Le ...
's policy was exploitative and a type of slavery. According to author
Adam Hochschild Adam Hochschild ( ; born October 5, 1942) is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer. His best-known works include ''King Leopold's Ghost'' (1998), ''To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918'' (2011), '' Bur ...
, Morel's conclusions were correct—the value of the goods coming from the Congo Free State was five times that of the goods coming from Europe, and the difference was being extracted from the Congolese population through force and mass atrocities. Morel discussed the discrepancies with the head of the Elder Dempster line, who responded coldly and dismissively. The company soon offered Morel an overseas promotion and then a
sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...
consultancy in return for a guarantee of his silence. Morel refused both offers, and left the company in 1901 to become a full-time journalist.


Journalism and Congo Reform Association

In 1900, Morel put new life into the campaign against Congo misrule (begun a decade before by the American
George Washington Williams George Washington Williams (October 16, 1849 – August 2, 1891) was a soldier in the American Civil War and in Mexico before becoming a Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, journalist, and writer on African-American history. He served in the O ...
) with a series of articles detailing his discoveries about the Congo Free State trade imbalances. His inside information made him a powerful voice against the exploitation, as previous activists had lacked his access to precise figures about the trade. In 1903, he founded his own magazine, the ''West African Mail'', with the collaboration of John Holt, a businessman and friend of
Mary Kingsley ''For the English novelist, see Mary St Leger Kingsley.'' Mary Henrietta Kingsley (13 October 1862 – 3 June 1900) was an English ethnographer, writer and explorer who made numerous travels through West Africa and wrote several books on ...
, who feared that the system of the Congo Free State would be applied upon the rest of the West African colonies. The ''Mail'' was an "illustrated weekly journal founded to meet the rapidly growing interest in west and central African questions". The paper also received initial financial backing from Sir
Alfred Lewis Jones Sir Alfred Lewis Jones (24 February 1845 – 13 December 1909) was a Welsh businessman and ship-owner. Described by W. T. Stead as "The Uncrowned King of West Africa", Jones was a pre-eminent figure in the colonial shipping trade who amassed ...
, Morel's former employer at Elder Dempster, apparently in a final attempt to moderate Morel's criticism of the company, but Jones soon discontinued his support. Morel published several pamphlets and his first book, ''Affairs of West Africa'', a collection of his essays. In 1903, under pressure from Morel's campaign, the
British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...
passed a resolution protesting human rights abuses in the Congo. Subsequently, the British consul in the Congo,
Roger Casement Roger David Casement (; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist executed by the United Kingdom for treason during World War I. He worked for the Britis ...
, was sent up country by the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...
for an investigation. Casement was outraged by the evidence of atrocities that he discovered and wrote a blistering report in 1904, discussing its contents with the London press even before its official release. Morel was introduced to Casement by their mutual friend
Herbert Ward Herbert may refer to: People * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert, Northern Territory ...
just before the publication of the report and realised that in Casement he had found the ally he had sought.Pavlakis, Dean
British Humanitarianism and the Congo Reform Movement, 1896-1913
Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
Casement convinced Morel to establish an organisation for dealing specifically with the Congo question, the
Congo Reform Association The Congo Reform Association (CRA) was a political and humanitarian activist group that sought to promote reform of the Congo Free State, a private territory in Central Africa under the absolute sovereignty of King Leopold II. Active from 19 ...
; because of the restrictions placed on Casement by his official duties, Morel would be the organisation's head. Affiliates of the Congo Reform Association were established as far away as the United States. The Congo Reform Association had the support of famous writers such as
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...
(whose ''
Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' is an 1899 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgium, Belgian company in the African interior. Th ...
'' was inspired by a voyage to the Congo Free State),
Anatole France (; born ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters.Nobel laureates The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...
and
John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called '' The Forsyte Saga'', and two later trilogies, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of th ...
,
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
creator
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
,Hochschild, p. 271. civil rights activist
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...
, and
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...
.Hochschild, pp. 241-242. Conan Doyle wrote ''
The Crime of the Congo ''The Crime of the Congo'' is a 1909 book by British writer and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, about human rights abuses in the Congo Free State, a private state established and controlled by the King of the Belgians, Leopold II. Synopsis Th ...
'' in 1908, while Twain gave the most famous contribution with the satirical short story ''
King Leopold's Soliloquy ''King Leopold's Soliloquy'' is a 1905 pamphlet by American author Mark Twain. Its subject is Leopold II's rule over the Congo Free State. A work of political satire harshly condemnatory of his actions, it ostensibly recounts a fictional monolog ...
''. Conrad and
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...
also included a devastating parody of Leopold II in their cowritten novel '' The Inheritors''. Morel's best allies, however, may have been the Christian
missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...
who furnished him with eyewitness accounts and photographs of the atrocities, such as those given by the Americans William Morrison and
William Henry Sheppard William Henry Sheppard (March 8, 1865 – November 25, 1927) was one of the earliest African Americans to become a missionary for the Presbyterian Church. He spent 20 years in Africa, primarily in and around the Congo Free State, and is best know ...
, and the British
John Hobbis Harris Sir John Hobbis Harris (29 July 1874 – 30 April 1940) was an English missionary, campaigner against slavery and Liberal Party politician. Family Harris was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire. His father, also John Hobbis Harris, was a plumber and l ...
and Alice Harris. The chocolate millionaire William Cadbury, a Quaker, was one of his main financial backers. The Belgian socialist leader
Emile Vandervelde Emile Vandervelde (25 January 1866 – 27 December 1938) was a Belgium, Belgian socialist politician. Nicknamed "the boss" (''le patron''), Vandervelde was a leading figure in the Belgian Labour Party (POB–BWP) and in international socialism. C ...
sent him copies of Belgian parliamentary debates and was recruited by Morel to successfully defend the missionaries Sheppard and Morrison ''pro bono'' in a libel suit brought by Kasai Rubber Company. Morel also had secret connections with some agents within the Congo Free State itself. Even the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
and American religious groups backed him. In 1905 the movement won a victory when a Commission of Enquiry, instituted (under external pressure) by King Léopold II himself, substantially confirmed the accusations made about the colonial administration. In the face of mounting public and diplomatic pressure, in 1908 the Congo was annexed to the Belgian government and put under its sovereignty. Despite this, Morel refused to declare an end to the campaign until 1913 because he wanted to see actual changes in the situation of the country. The Congo Reform Association ended operations in 1913.


World War I activism


Foreign policy

During the
Agadir Crisis The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis, was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in July 1911 and the deployment of the German gunboat to Agadir, ...
of 1911, Morel was entirely in sympathy with Germany and opposed to what he regarded as bellicosity by the United Kingdom and France, as well as secret diplomacy between the states involved. He wrote '' Morocco in Diplomacy'' (1912) to express his views on the issue. At this time he was also selected by the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
as a prospective House of Commons candidate for
Birkenhead Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...
.


Pacifism and formation of Union of Democratic Control

As the tension grew in the run-up to
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Morel was again sympathetic to Germany, disinclined to stand by Belgium under German pressure, and opposed to the United Kingdom and France getting involved in war. He campaigned for neutrality but on the outbreak of war accepted that the fight was lost, and with Charles Trevelyan,
Norman Angell Sir Ralph Norman Angell (26 December 1872 – 7 October 1967) was an English Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was a lecturer, journalist, author and Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. Angell was one of the principal founders of the Union ...
and
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
, formed the
Union of Democratic Control The Union of Democratic Control was a British advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifism, pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. World Wa ...
to press for a more responsive foreign policy (he also resigned his candidature at this time). He was Secretary of the UDC until his death. The main demands of the UDC were: (1) that in future to prevent secret diplomacy there should be parliamentary control over foreign policy; (2) there should be negotiations after the war with other democratic European countries in an attempt to form an organisation to help prevent future conflicts; (3) that at the end of the war the terms of peace should neither humiliate the defeated nation nor artificially rearrange frontiers, as this might provide a cause for future wars. The Union of Democratic Control became the most important of all the anti-war organisations in Britain, with membership reaching 650,000 by 1917. His political courage was praised by people such as
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...
and the writer
Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
, but his leading role in the pacifist movement exposed him to violent attacks led by the pro-war press. He was pictured as an agent of Germany in the ''
Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...
'', a newspaper that also listed details of future UDC meetings and encouraged its readers to attend and break them up. The accusation gained some credibility when Roger Casement, who was known as a friend and supporter of Morel, was hanged for
treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
(he had contacted the Germans seeking support for Irish nationalism). Morel was even the victim of occasional physical assaults.


Imprisonment

On 22 August 1917 Morel's house was searched and evidence was discovered that he had sent a UDC pamphlet to
Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
in Switzerland, a neutral country, which was a breach of the
Defence of the Realm Act The Defence of the Realm Act 1914 ( 4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 29) (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 1914, four days after the country entered the First World War. It was added to as the war progressed. It gave the government wide-ranging ...
. Morel was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, which he served in
Pentonville Prison HM Prison Pentonville (informally "The Ville") is an English Category B men's prison, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not in Pentonville, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury ar ...
. Although along with other pacifists, he was placed in the 'second division', allowing some privileges over the majority of prisoners, conditions were very hard, and Morel's health was seriously damaged. Russell described his condition at his release: Morel was released in January 1918.


Independent Labour Party membership

In April 1918, he joined the
Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...
, and began to feed his views into the Labour Party to which it was affiliated and which adopted his critical view of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
. Morel explained his decision to join the Independent Labour Party to a friend:


Postwar activism


Treaty of Versailles

Morel was severely critical of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
and warned that it would lead to another war. He particularly opposed the assignment of "war guilt" exclusively to the
Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
as well as the mandate system for former German colonies. The latter theme became the focus of his 1920 book '' The Black Man's Burden''. He did not give up his career as a journalist, becoming director of the UDC's journal, originally titled ''The UDC'', later ''Foreign Affairs: A Journal of International Understanding''.Orzuff, Andrea.
Battle for the Castle: The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe, 1914-1948.
' Oxford University Press, USA. 2009. p. 153.
''Foreign Affairs'' became a significant voice of the English left about foreign politics at the time and represented the views of the UDC.Ashworth, Lucian M.
International Relations and the Labour Party: Intellectuals and Policy Making from 1918-1945.
' I.B.Tauris, 2007. p. 61.
In his articles for the magazine, Morel blamed France and Tsarist Russia, not the Central Powers, for the origins of the war and was scathingly critical of French imperialism. Morel's articles also deplored the fate of the new nation of
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
, which had been part of the Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
before the war. The former Kingdom of Hungary was stripped of more than two thirds of its territory and most of its population in the 1920
Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...
. Morel portrayed Hungary as a victim of French rapacity that reduced it to "Hopeless, Heart-Breaking Bondage".


The Black Horror on the Rhine

As part of his general opposition to French foreign policy, Morel played a key role in launching the British-based part of the
Black Shame The Black Horror on the Rhine was a moral panic aroused in Weimar Germany and elsewhere concerning allegations of widespread crimes, especially sexual crimes, supposedly committed by Senegalese and other African soldiers serving in the French Arm ...
campaign, a campaign against the use of 'primitive' black troops by the
French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...
during its
occupation of the Rhineland The Occupation of the Rhineland placed the region of Germany west of the Rhine river and four bridgeheads to its east under the control of the victorious Allies of World War I from 1December 1918 until 30June 1930. The occupation was imposed a ...
. In a front-page article in ''
The Daily Herald ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' is the name of various newspapers. ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' Australia * ''The Herald'' (Adelaide) and several similar names (1894–1924), a South Australian Labor weekly, then daily * '' Barossa and Light Heral ...
'' on 9 April 1920 by Morel about the French occupation of the Rhineland, the headline read, ": "Frankfurt runs red with blood French Black Troops Use Machine-guns on Civilians".Reinders, Robert C. "Racialism on the Left: E. D. Morel and the 'Black Horror on the Rhine.'" ''International Review of Social History'', Volume 13. 1968. p. 1. The following day, the same paper had another cover story by Morel, the title of which was "Black Scourge In Europe Sexual Horror Let Loose by France On Rhine Disappearance of Young German Girls". In it, Morel wrote that France is "thrusting her black savages into the heart of Germany" and that the "primitive African savages, the carriers of syphilis, have become a horror and a terror" to the Rhinelanders. In his article, Morel claimed that the Senegalese soldiers serving in the French Army were "primitive African barbarians" who "stuffed their haversacks with eye-balls, ears and heads of the foe".Campbell, Peter. "The 'Black Horror on the Rhine': Idealism, Pacifism, and Racism in Feminism and the Left in the Aftermath of the First World War". ''Social History'', Volume XLVII, Issue 94. June 2014. p. 477 Morel declared in his article:
There he Rhinelandthey he Senegalese soldiershave become a terror and a horror unimaginable to the countryside, raping girls and women – for well known physiological reasons, the raping of a white woman by a negro is nearly always accompanied by serious injuries and not infrequently has fatal results; spreading syphilis, murdering inoffensive civilians, often getting completely out of control; the terrible barbaric incarnation of a barbarous policy, embodied in a so-called peace treaty which puts the clock back 2,000 years".
Morel wrote that "black savages" have uncontrolled sexual impulses that "''must be satisfied upon the bodies of white women!''" (emphasis in the original). The phrase that Morel coined to describe the alleged terror by Senegalese troops in the Rhineland was the "
Black Horror on the Rhine The Black Horror on the Rhine was a moral panic aroused in Weimar Germany and elsewhere concerning allegations of widespread crimes, especially sexual crimes, supposedly committed by Senegalese Tirailleurs, Senegalese and other African soldiers s ...
", which became internationally famous, and the campaign against the "black horror" took much of his time for the last four years of his life. Morel predicated the "black horror" would cause another world war, writing that the average German boy was thinking: "''Boys these men raped your mothers and sisters''" (emphasis in the original). Morel used the "black horror" as a way of attacking France, which he claimed had caused a "sexual horror on the Rhine" and whose "reign of terror" was a "giant evil" that should inspire "shame into all four corners of the world" and ultimately should "a revision of the Versailles Treaty and the relief for Germany". The German sociologist Iris Wigger wrote that Morel's "Black Horror on the Rhine" campaign has caused much embarrassment to Morel's admirers today, who would rather remember the man who campaigned against the Congo Free State, but in fact, both campaigns were manifestations of the same racism since he believed that all black people were innately stupid and inferior to white people in all respects. Though Morel had been very forceful in condemning the cruel exploitation of the Congo Free State, he believed in a liberal imperialism, just not the cruel exploitative imperialism of the Congo Company. He wrote that it was the duty of whites to serve as the "trustees" for blacks and the "great white father" who would protect the "basic human rights" of Africans while at the same time accepting the "infantile" nature of black people, who not the equal in any way of whites. Morel himself did not see his campaign as racist and always presented himself as a friend to black people. In France, the French socialist
Charles Gide Charles Gide (; 1847–1932) was a French economist and historian of economic thought. He was a professor at the University of Bordeaux, at Montpellier, at Université de Paris and finally at Collège de France. His nephew was the author Andr ...
wrote about Morel's claims to be a protector of Africans: ''le genre de protection de M. Morel rappelle un peu le precepte que fait afficher la Society protectrice des animaux: 'Soyez bons pour les betes (Mr. Morel's kind of protection remind a little of the precepts of the Society for the Protection of Animals: 'Be good to the animals'). In particular, Morel believed that Africans, lacking the self-discipline of whites, had an uncontrolled sexuality and often wrote about that subject.Wigger, pp. 52-53. Morel believed that because of the high infant mortality in the tropics Africans had evolved in such a way as to be obsessed with sex, to the exclusion of everything else, as they needed a high birth rate to maintain their numbers. Precisely because Morel believed in the uncontrolled sexuality of blacks, he considered it self-evident that the "sexually uncontrolled and uncontrollable" Senegalese would run amok in the Rhineland and rape every German female in sight. Two contemporaries challenged Morel on that:
Claude McKay Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance'' (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predate ...
, the Jamaican poet and labour activist, and Norman Leys, the British Africanist. Leys stated that such allegations constituted "one of the great sources of race hatred" and "should never be repeated by any honest man or honest newspaper". Morel was very anti-French because of his opposition to the Treaty of Versailles but also the nature of France's '' mission civilisatrice'' ("civilizing mission") in Africa, with any African willing to embrace the French language and culture becoming French and theoretically the equal of whites, threatened to upend Morel's beliefs in the essential biological inferiority of blacks.Wigger, pp. 55-56. Morel believed that the Africans were committing outrageous crimes against Germans in the Rhineland because the French had empowered them, at least theoretically, by making them into black Frenchmen, who were just as much French citizens as anyone else.


Parliament

In the 1922 general election, which followed the retirement of an incumbent Labour Member of Parliament, Alexander Wilkie, Morel fought the two-member
Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
constituency as a sole Labour candidate. Although he gained fewer votes than
Edwin Scrymgeour Edwin Scrymgeour (28 July 1866 – 1 February 1947) was a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee in Scotland. He is the only person ever elected to the House of Commons on a prohibitionist ticket, as the ca ...
of the
Scottish Prohibition Party The Scottish Prohibition Party was a minor Scottish political party which advocated alcohol prohibition. The party was founded in 1901. In its early years, Bob Stewart acted as the party's full-time organiser.Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
, standing as a National Liberal. Morel regarded Churchill as a warmonger and took pride in having defeated him: "I look upon Churchill as such a personal force for evil that I would take up the fight against him with a whole heart". With his foreign affairs specialty, he was expected to be appointed as Foreign Secretary in the government of
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
in 1924, but MacDonald decided to serve as his own Foreign Secretary.Wustenbecker, Katja
"Morel, E. D."
In ''World War I Encyclopedia.'' Vol. 1. ABC CLIO, 2005. p. 815
Possibly in compensation, MacDonald led an attempt to nominate Morel for the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
. In August 1924, Morel is believed to have persuaded MacDonald to recognise the communist government in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and nominations on the Anglo-Soviet trade treaty. Shortly after his re-election in the 1924 general election, Morel suffered a fatal heart attack in London. He was cremated at
Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and is one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £136,000 in 2021), ...
.


Legacy

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
became acquainted with Morel through the work of the Congo Reform Association. In his novel '' The Lost World'' (1912), he used Morel as an inspiration for the character of Ed Malone. Philosopher and activist
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...
said of Morel, "No other man known to me has had the same heroic simplicity in pursuing and proclaiming political truth."
George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
, writing in 1946, described Morel as "heroic but rather forgotten man." Author Jasper Morel Fforde states that Morel is his great-grandfather.Fforde, Jasper
"Ten Things You Never Knew About Jasper: (and never thought to ask)."
''jasperfforde.com.'' Accessed 29 April 2018.
In assessing Morel's impact on the Congo, contemporary author
Adam Hochschild Adam Hochschild ( ; born October 5, 1942) is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer. His best-known works include ''King Leopold's Ghost'' (1998), ''To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918'' (2011), '' Bur ...
—whose bestseller ''
King Leopold's Ghost ''King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa'' (1998) is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of the Belgians betw ...
'' had revived Morel's reputation—wrote:
Did the Congo Reform campaign save millions of lives? For many years, the conventional answer was yes ... but the truth is more somber. Some of the worst abuses in the Congo, such as the kidnapping of hostages, did stop as a result of the publicity. But the near-genocidal death rate in the territory continued for more than a decade under Belgian rule.Hochschild, Adam
"King Leopold's Ghost."
In ''Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience.'' Eds. Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 468
After making this statement, Hochschild concludes, Morel's movement served two great purposes:
First, they put a remarkable amount of information on the historical record ... The movement's other great achievement is that, among its supporters, it kept alive a tradition, a way of seeing the world, a human capacity for being outraged because pain is being inflicted on another human being, even when that pain is inflicted on someone of another color, in another country ... It is this spirit that underlies organisations like Amnesty International ... and Médecins Sans Frontières.


Bibliography

*
Affairs of West Africa
' (1902) *
The British Case in French Congo
' (1903) *
King Leopold's Rule in Africa
' (1904) *
Red Rubber – The story of the rubber slave trade that flourished in Congo in the year of grace 1906
' (1906) *
Great Britain and the Congo: the Pillage of the Congo Basin
' (1909) - Introduction by A. Conan Doyle *
Nigeria: Its Peoples And Its Problems
' (1911) * ''Morocco in Diplomacy'' (1912) (reissued as
Ten Years of Secret Diplomacy
' in 1915) *
Truth and the War
' (1916) *
The African problem and the peace settlement
' (1917) * '' The Black Man's Burden'' (1920) * ''Thoughts on the War'' * ''The Peace, and Prison'' * ''Pre-War Diplomacy'' *
Diplomacy Revealed
' (1921) * ''The Horror on the Rhine'' (1921) (pamphlet) *
Military preparations for the Great War : fact versus fiction
' (1922) *
The Secret History of a Great Betrayal
' (1924)


See also

*
List of peace activists This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated Diplomacy, diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usua ...
*
Jules Marchal Jules Marchal (1924 - 21 June 2003) was a Belgian diplomat and historian, who wrote extensively on the history of colonial exploitation in the Belgian Congo. Originally writing in Dutch, under the pseudonym A. M. Delathuy, he later published stu ...
, Belgian diplomat and author on colonial exploitation.


Notes


References

* Alexander, Nathan G
"E.D. Morel (1873–1924), the Congo Reform Association, and the History of Human Rights."
Britain and the World 9, no. 2 (2016): 213–235. * Campbell, Peter "The “Black Horror on the Rhine”: Idealism, Pacifism, and Racism in Feminism and the Left in the Aftermath of the First World War" pages 471-496 from ''Social History'', Volume XLVII, Issue 94, June 2014 * Hochschild, Adam (1998), ''
King Leopold's Ghost ''King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa'' (1998) is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of the Belgians betw ...
'', Pan, . * Lusane, Clarence ''Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experiences of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans, and African Americans in the Nazi Era'', London: Psychology Press, 2002 . *Reindeers, Robert "Racialism on the Left: E.D. Morel and the 'Black Horror on the Rhine'" pages 1–28 from ''International Review of Social History'', Volume 13, 1968 * Stanard, Matthew G. ''Selling the Congo: A history of European pro-empire propaganda and the making of Belgian imperialism'' (U of Nebraska Press, 2012). *Wigger, Iris ''The 'Black Horror on the Rhine' Intersections of Race, Nation, Gender and Class in 1920s Germany'' London: Macmillan, 2017 . * Daniël Vangroenweghe (2004), ''Rood Rubber – Leopold II en zijn Congo'', .


Further reading

*


External links

*
Catalogue of the Morel papers
at th

of the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
.
An article on Morel from Liverpool's 'Nerve' magazine

E.D. Morel, the man and his work, with an introd. by Colonel Wedgwood ([1920]), full text


* ttp://www.journalbelgianhistory.be/en/author/daniel-vangroenweghe Journal of Belgian History, Digital Archive* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morel, E. D. 1873 births 1924 deaths Activists against atrocities in the Congo Free State Politicians from Paris Independent Labour Party MPs Scottish Labour MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dundee constituencies British pacifists British male journalists People educated at Bedford Modern School UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 British whistleblowers British white supremacists British anti–World War I activists British expatriates in Belgium French emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom