Office of the Historian

862S.01/16: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Belgium (Fletcher)

Washington, February 2, 1923—7 p.m.

15. Belgian memorandum of October 10, 1922,2 concerning “B” mandate, transmitted with your despatch No. 171, of November 22, 1922.3

Please address the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the sense of the following:

“My Government has given careful consideration to the views advanced in your Memorandum of October 10, 1922, with regard to the proposed treaty for Ruanda-Urundi and the Belgian mandate for that territory.

It is noted that since my Memorandum of July 15, last,4 on this matter, Article 8 of the mandate for Ruanda-Urundi has been redrafted, and that the final text of this Article, as confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on July 20, 1922, is substantially similar to paragraph 1 of Article II of the treaty between the United States and Japan, regarding the former German Islands north of the equator, signed February 11, 1922. My Government will, therefore, not object to the text of Article 8 as defined by the Council of the League of Nations.

Accordingly, my Government is willing to proceed immediately to the signature of the convention.

There is transmitted herewith a draft of the full English text of the proposed convention, the terms of which have been agreed upon in our previous correspondence.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In handing the foregoing memorandum to M. Jaspar, please take advantage of that opportunity to say orally that this Government assumes that it is not the intention of the Belgian Government to [Page 432] deny to American missionaries in the mandated territory of Ruanda-Urundi the enjoyment of privileges heretofore accorded them in that territory.

The Department would be glad if you could find it possible to make necessary arrangements to proceed promptly to the signature of the treaty, and is telegraphing full powers.

For your information. Department has also received reply of French Government, through Embassy, Paris, and instructions similar to those set forth above have been telegraphed to Mr. Herrick.4a

Hughes
  1. Not printed; reproduces substantially the two notes of Sept. 9 and Oct. 14, 1922, from the Belgian Chargé, Foreign Relations, vol. i, 1922, pp. 637, 638.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. Not printed; see memorandum to the Belgian Legation, July 12, 1922, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 637.↩
  4. Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. ii, p. 153.↩