NINETY-YEAR DISPUTE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 13, 16 January 1946, Page 5

NINETY-YEAR DISPUTE

FOR INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE Reed. 6.30 p.m. London, Jan. 14. Britain showed trust in Ihe U.N.O. by announcing to-day that«she intended to place a 90-year-old dispute with Guatemala before the International Court of Justice, which will be formed before the present session ends, says the Press Association’s diplomatic correspondent. The dispute which is most notable for its antiquity, started in 1859, when a treaty was signed delineating Ihe frontiers between Guatemala and British Honduras, whereby it was agreed that, the main road should be built between Guatemala and Belize (capital of the British colony). The road is still not made. Br.lain in 1863 offered £50,000 towards the cost, but Guatemala proposed two conditions which Britain could not accept. Britain renewed Ihe offer in 1896 and in 1934. Guatemala rejected both, also a British proposal to send the whole matter before arbitration.

Guatemala now contends thal she has a claim to the whole of British Honduras. The Guatemalan Foreign Minister has asked that the discussion suspended in 1940 should be renewed. Britain replied that Ihe United Nations Charter, which both Britain and Guatemala rati lied, provided that legal disputes of this lypr should be referred to Ihe International Court of Justice.