CESSION OF TERRITORY

Southland Times, Issue 19173, 18 February 1924, Page 5

CESSION OF TERRITORY

BRITAIN’S INTENTIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, February 15. (Received February 17, 5.5 p.m.) Replying to a Parliamentary question, Hon Arthur Ponsonby (Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs), stated that the Government had no intention of ceding Jamacia or other British possessions to a foreign Power. He added: “The Government, however, has been informed that its predecessors committed themselves to an agreement which may involve certain small cessions of territory. It is authoritatively stated that the reference does not refer to any Debt Settling arrangement. It concerns Jubaland in Africa, which may be ceded to Italy in accordance with an Allied understanding made during the war. Under the heading “Sensational Reports,” the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s Paris correspondent telegraphed to London as follows on February 10:—“According to the Excelsior, the United States Government is willing to accept in payment of the French debt the cession to the United States of the French Islands in the West Indies, The Excelsior states: ‘Negotiations have been in progress for some time. It is reported that the United States would also pay Britain the war debt owed her by France in return for the cession of Jamaica. These islands would be of the greatest strategic importance to the United States. On the following day the report was denied by the French Foreign Office.’”