§ 14. Mr. SNOWDENasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Spanish Government offered to lend its good offices in order that the territories in Central Africa should be placed during the War under the rule of neutrality; whether the British Government was bound by treaty to accept such an offer of mediation, and what was the answer given by the British Government to Spain; whether France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, and the United States had all expressed themselves in favour of excluding Central Africa from military operations; and when and by whom did the first act of war take place in the conventional basin of the Congo?
§ Lord ROBERT CECILThe Spanish Government were requested by the Belgian Government about 10th August, 1914, to approach Germany with a request for the neutralisation of the conventional basin of the Congo during the War. The Spanish Government consulted His Majesty's Ambassador at Madrid informally as to this request, and on 16th August His Majesty's Ambassador was informed that His Majesty's Government could not entertain the proposal for neutralisation, more especially as the German forces in East Africa had already undertaken an offensive movement against Nyasaland, and British naval forces had just destroyed the wireless station at Dar-es-Salaam. As regards the remainder of the question, His Majesty's Government were not bound by treaty to comply with such a request from a neutral Government, for the relevant Articles of the Berlin Act contain no mention of any such obligation. The answer to the third paragraph of the question is in the negative. I am unable to say what was actually the first act of war within the conventional basin of the Congo.