Minister Wilson to the Secretary of State.

No. 312.]

Sir: I have the honor to report that the Belgian premier, Mr. Schollaert, in response to an interrogatory submitted in the committee of seventeen by Mr. Hymans, leader of the Left, has made public the following statements:

The French Government has declared to us that it is prepared to confirm the agreement entered into between France and Belgium on February 5, 1895, on the subject of the right of preemption (préférence) over the Kongo possessions. Signatures of this new agreement will be exchanged simultaneously with the settling of the Shiloango question and that of the tariffs between France and the Kongo Free State.

The Government also added, in the way of explanation, that the questions of the delimitation on the frontier on the Shiloango and that of the fixed tariff of the Kongo Railway have been under negotiation between the French Government and the Kongo Government, and that these negotiations would be continued by the Belgian Government.

I have, etc.,

Henry Lane Wilson.