BELGIAN CONGO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 302, 19 November 1938, Page 8

BELGIAN CONGO.

WILL BE RETAINED. CONSUL’S DECISIVE REMARKS. Pear Press Association. WELLINGTON, Nov. IS. “To steal that African home of ours, one would have to pass over our bodies, and We are people of our word,” said the Consul for Belgium in New Zealand, M. Armand Niiiotte, referring in an interview to-day to cablegrams reproduced in the New Zealand L’ress during the past few weeks suggesting a possible settlement of the colonial question by handing over to Germany the whole or part of the Belgian Congo “This plan, it should be noted, does not emanate from Germany, which, through her responsible leaders, has consistently and firmly rejected it,” M. Nihotte said. “Indeed; the Gorman official broadcasting station has again, during the last few days, declared such a proposal to be so stupid that it was hardly necessary for the Germans to mention it in order to give it an emphatic denial. “Of all the arguments put forward to justify the perpetration of what would be a monstrous iniquity one in the mind of some people appears to be valid. They believe that, in, robbing Relgium, they could find an easy solution to an extremely delicate problem. Well, to this argument, Belgium gives a decisive reply. “I speak not only as a mere Belgian, but also as the official representative of the Belgian Government in this part uf the world, repeating the same language used by the Prime Minister of Belgium, by the Minister of Colonies, and the reply is this: Perhaps robbing us of our rights would be a solution, but it would not be an easy solution, because this Congo which we have acquired legitimately, this Congo 'which we are worthy to possess—and we have shown it now for the last 50 years-—this Congo which we are qualified to work, this Congo which we are capable of defending (we proved this during the immortal campaign of 1914-1918)—we. have made up our minds always to defend it against one and all to our very' last breath.”