Holland
This letter was addressed to the newspaper Le Temps:
There is talk of Holland's attitude at the anti-slavery conference in Brussels, as if Holland had not wanted to sign the General Act of that conference. This is a mistake. Holland has always agreed and still agrees to sign this Act, which already included a duty on spirits; it would even agree to vote for a higher duty on this item.
However, what Holland refused to sign was a second Act that sought to amend the Berlin Act by proposing the introduction of import duties on goods in general.
All traders on the Congo, French, Portuguese, English, or Dutch, missions, companies founded in England to protect black people, agree with Holland in recognizing that the issue of import duties on goods should never have been included in the anti-slavery convention.
W.-C. Schalwyk
Director of the Nieuwe Afrikaanse Handels-Vennootschap