File No. 763.72/2709
The Consul at Havre (Osborne) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 23.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that Le XXe Siècle, a Belgian journal published in Havre, contains in its number of May 2, 1916. an account of an important declaration made on April 29, 1916, by Mr. Klobukowski, the French Minister to Belgium, to the Minister [Page 30] of Foreign Affairs of Belgium at Sainte-Adresse. The following is a translation of this article:
THE ALLIES AND THE BELGIAN CONGO
An Important Declaration for the Future of Our Colony
On April 29 his excellency Mr. Klobukowski, Minister of the French Republic to the Belgian Government, delivered to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium a declaration couched in the following terms:
Referring on the one hand to the Franco-Belgian agreements of April 23-24, 1884, February 5, 1895, and December 23, 1908, and on the other hand to the adhesion which it gave to the note delivered on September 19, 1914, to the Belgian Government by the Minister of Great Britain on the subject of the Congo, as well as to the declaration of the guarantor powers of the independence and of the neutrality of Belgium under date of February 14, 1916, the Government of the French Republic desires to declare that it will give its aid to the Royal Government during the negotiations of peace with a view to maintaining the Belgian Congo in its present territorial state and to securing for that colony a special indemnity for the loses sustained in the course of the war.
On the same day, his excellency, Sir Francis Hyde Villiers, Minister of Great Britain, and Mr. de Hoeck, Chargé d’Affaires of Russia, informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the adhesion of their Governments to this declaration. His excellency, Mr. Carignani, Minister of Italy, and Mr. Chiyuki Yamanaka, Chargé d’Affaires of Japan, have also advised him that their Governments took note of it.
Baron Beyens expressed to the representatives of the Allied powers the hearty thanks of the Belgian Government for this new testimony of friendship and solidarity.
I have [etc.]