BOUNDARY PROBLEM

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31923, 26 February 1969, Page 22

BOUNDARY PROBLEM

Frontier On A Brook (From HOWARD WILLIAMS in Brussels/ A request to the town authorities of Couvin, Belgium, for planning permission to build a chalet may lead to a new—and one of the strangest in modern times—international boundary dispute.

For the authorities do not know whether the site is in Belgium or France. When the Treaty of Paris of 1820 was signed between the Netherlands and France, as a preliminary to the establishment of Belgium in 1830, the demarcation line was clearly stated.

In the Ardennes, between Couvin and the French town of Fumay, the BelgianFrench frontier was established along the Alyse, a small brook.

But the demarcation problem has been caused because in the summer the brook dries up and in the winter it is nearly always flooded. This has resulted in the natural water frontier moving from year to year. The question Io be answered now is: does the Belgium-French frontier run along the line formed by the brook in 1820 or, legally, does it run along the line of the brook as it is now? If the answer is that it lies along the line of the 1820 brook, experts will have to trace the exact line from unreliable and sketchy maps of the time. In an effort to resolve the problem, the Mayors of Couvin and Fumay have set up a joint committee to probe the affair. If the committee can agree, it will make recommendations to the French and Belgian Governments. If it cannot agree, or if either of the two Governments rejects its findings, the matter will probably be referred to the Common Market court in Luxemburg for arbitration. Meanwhile, somebody is waiting to build his chalet—whether it is in Belgium or France.