HC Deb 06 April 1950 vol 473 cc199-200W
111. Mr. De Chair

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the frontier of Somaliland under Italian administration, which was defined by His Majesty's Government before the transfer was decided by the United Nations Assembly, but which is now the subject of a protest by the Italian Government to the Trusteeship Council within 48 hours of the formal transfer of the territory to Italian control.

Mr. Ernest Davies

His Majesty's Government have made it clear to the Trusteeship Council and to the Italian and Ethiopian Governments that the administrative line up to which the incoming Italian Administration in Somaliland have occupied the territory, and which His Majesty's Government were obliged to define in view of the failure of the Italian and Ethiopian Governments to reach a common view on this subject, is provisional only and without prejudice to the final settlement of this question. Although agreement between the Ethiopian and Italian Governments did not prove possible within the time available before the hand-over in Somaliland, it is to be hoped that such agreement may be reached in the future.