COLONIAL CLAIMS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 6, 4 December 1937, Page 9

COLONIAL CLAIMS

GERMAN POSSESSIONS. THE BELGIAN CONGO. KEEN INTEREST EVINCED. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, Dec. 3. Keen interest in the Anglo-French talks led a number of foreign ambassadors, including the Belgian and* Portuguese, to seek interviews with the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Anthony Eden, states the Daily Telegraph. It is expected that both the Belgian and the Portuguese Ambassadors would desire authoritative information regarding the origin "of the German suggestion of a chartered company in the Belgian Congo. Herr von Ribbentrop, German Ambassador, called at the Foreign Office on instructions from his Government. He explained that these were Dr. Schacht’s personal views. The Government’s views could be found only in Herr Hitler’s statement. It is officially announced through the German news agency that Germany’s colonial claims are confined to her pre-war possessions. According to a message from Brussels, M. Spaak, in the Senate, stated that the Government would never permit interference with the integrity of the Belgian colonies. “The Prime Minister’s secretary authorises me to state that, the sale or lease of Portuguese colonies would not be entertained by. , the Government, which would refuse even to discuss the subject. The alienation of Portuguese territory is forbidden by constitution and by national sentiment,” says the Lisbon correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph’s Tokio correspondent says that the Japanese Press carries reports 'that Germany is seeking to recover New Guinea.