MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, having regard to the promise of inquiry made on 15th February, 1901, His Majesty's Government are now aware that in September, 1900, a German force forcibly seized a portion of the Congo Free State, and turned the Belgian forces out of their stations there under a threat of war; and that the Germans thus took possession of the strip of territory leased to Great Britain by King Leopold of Belgium in 1894, which territory was abandoned by Great Britain, owing to the objections of the German and French Governments; what grounds were or are alleged by the German Government for seizing territory which they objected to being occupied by Great Britain, and the lease of which Great Britain abandoned on German representations; has His Majesty's Government made any representations on the subject to the German Government, or does it propose to make any; and if any such representations have been made, will the correspondence be laid upon the Table of this House.
§ LORD CRANBORNEThe information we have received from the German Government does not include any mention of occurrences of the kind described in my hon. friend's Question, but is to the effect that a mixed German Congolese Commission has for some time past been engaged in the preliminaries 1115 necessary for delimiting the boundaries of the respective German and Congolese territories in the neighbourhood of Lake Kivu. There are no Papers which could conveniently be laid.
MR. GIBSON BOWLESThe noble Lord says the information received does not include that I ask for. Is he aware that in February, 1901, he promised to make inquiry, and has he done so?
§ LORD CRANBORNEOh, yes, communications have passed.