§ 70. Mr. RHYS DAVIESasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether a report has been received by the Government from the British commissioner, Lieutenant-Colonel E. H. M. Clifford, R.E., of the British Somaliland-Abyssinian Boundary Commission, as to the armed conflict which occurred early in December between Italian and Abyssinian forces; and whether he will publish this report and communicate it to the League of Nations?
§ The LORD PRIVY SEAL (Mr. Eden)Neither Colonel Clifford nor any other member of the Joint Anglo-Ethiopian Boundary Commission was present on the occasion of the encounter between Italian and Abyssinian forces on the 5th December. It is therefore not possible for His Majesty's Government to publish a report of what happened on this occasion.
§ 71. Mr. PALINGasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the statement of Lieutenant-Colonel E. H. M. Clifford, R.E., British commissioner of the British Somaliland-Abyssinian Boundary Commission, in annex 14 of the memorandum submitted by the Abyssinian Government to the League in January last, that on 18th March, 1932, the British district officer at Erigevo, in British Somaliland, was requested by an Italian officer to inform the Italian Government if the Anglo-Abyssinian Delimitation Commission should wish to draw water from the wells at Walwal and Warder, and that the British Government regarded it as impossible even to reply to such a communication; whether a report on this matter was received at the time; and what was the reason for the action referred to?
§ Mr. EDENYes, Sir. No reply was sent to the Italian suggestion in 1932 because, although the wells were known to be in Italian occupation, His Majesty's Government could not, pend 537 ing the delimitation of the frontier between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia, take any action equivalent to an expression of opinion regarding the ownership of the area in question.