Minister Wilson to the Secretary of State.
Brussels, January 30, 1908.
Belgian minister for foreign affairs has handed me a memorandum for copy and return in regard to our interview of January 23. It intimates that the annexation of Kongo is not an international question. Recites that the treaty now pending declares that Belgium in accepting cession assumes treaty obligations of Kongo State and that Belgian Government will execute same in same spirit and letter as observed in its own existing treaties with other powers. Touching acts of Berlin and Brussels on the conventional basin of the Kongo, states that the fact of Belgium being a contracting party therein is a [Page 541] sure guaranty of intentions of Belgian Government. Concludes, expressing the friendly and amicable, as well as private, character of the memorandum.