Anglo-Guatemala Dispute on Ownership Of Honduras

Grey River Argus, 28 September 1949, Page 5

Anglo-Guatemala Dispute on Ownership Of Honduras

(Rec. 9.15) LONDON, Sept. 27 The British Government has told the Guatemalan Government that the dispute between the two countries over the ownership of British Honduras must be judged at the International Court in The Hague on a strictly legal basis, saying: “This is the only fair way in which justice can be fulfilled.” The British point o'f view was contained in a Note delivered to the Guatemala Government on September 8, the text of which was published by the British Foreign Office in London to-day. The British Note was a reply to one received from Guatemala on May 27, in which Guatemala protested against the British plans for the development of British Honduras. The Guatemala Note also criticised the failure of the British Government to answer Guatemala’s earlier Notes, which had pressed fox the issue to be carried to The Hague Council on an equity basis. The British Government, in its Note, rejects Guatemala’s protest against the British development plans while the ownership of the colony has remained unsettled. It challenged the claim of Guatemala that to have a judgment on a legal basis would prevent the use of certain relevant arguments by Guatemala.