Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1902 — CUT PORTUGUESE COLONIES IN TWO [ARTICLE]

CUT PORTUGUESE COLONIES IN TWO

Secret Treaty Said" to Exist Between Germany and Great Britain, LORD CR4NBORNE IS EVASIVE Under Foreign Secretary Refuses to Discuss Matters, Claiming if Pact Existed He Could Not Be Expected to Make the Contents Public. The secret clause of the Anglo-Ger-man treaty relates to the acquisition of the Portuguese colonies in Africa, By this clause Germany will acquire the northern part of the Portuguese possessions as far as Beira, while Britain will take over the remainder, as well as Deiagoa Bay and Lorenzo Marques. The general belief in London that a secret treaty is in existence between Germany and Great Britain relative to the prospective division of the Portuguese possessions in South Africa received some support a fortnight ago, owing to the evasive reply made on the subject by Lord Cranborne, under foreign secretary. He parried all queries, saying that if such a treaty existed he, in the nature of things, was precluded from giving its terms. Terms of Concession. Details of the alleged treaty were published in December, 1899, by the Berlin Lokal Anzeiger, which stated that Germany, besides receiving Portugal’s Asiatic possessions, would, in return for a payment to Portugal of $6,250,000, receive all the Portuguese territory in South Africa north of Mozambique, except a strip of land three miles wide for Mr. Rhodes’ ♦ransafrican railway. England would on her part receive the remaining Afriean possessions of Portugal, which contain 2,000,000 square kilometers and 13,000,000 inhabitants. The consent of Portugal to this arrangement, it was said, had already been obtained in principle. Treaty Rights. In the crisis of the South African war it was regarded as highly probable that Britain would exercise the right of pre-emption she obtained under the Anglo-Portuguese agreement of 1891. This instrument says that “in the event of the two powers proposing to part with any of the territories to the south of the Zembesi, the other shall be recognized as possessing a preferential right to the territories in question or any part of them.”