U.N. AID SOUGHT

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29739, 5 February 1962, Page 3

U.N. AID SOUGHT

British Guiana

Appeal

(N ZJ^.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK. February 2 British Guiana said yesterday it would “not surrender one inch of soil” to any Venezuelan attempt on its territory, and asked for United Nations assistance in the event of aggression. The personal representative of the Prime Minister of British Guiana. Mr Felix Cummings, declared in a note, addressed to the General Assembly’s Trusteeship Committee, that v enezuela—which disputes t°?? r^' gnty of the territoryhad "no valid or legitimate claim.’’

Britain has proposed constitutional talks with British Guiana leaders in May. as a prelude to independence of the South American territory. which seeks freedom from British rule by October The letter said: "This belated attempt to claim any portion or the entire territory of British Guiana, nowapproaching independence, contravenes all tenets of international law

"The Guianese people . . . will not surrender one inch of their soil, and certainly will rely on the United Nations to defend their territorial integrity against the manifestly unjust claim of the Republic of Venezuela."