(18.)
BOUNDARY AGREEMENT BETWEEN FRANCE AND THE CONGO FREE STATE, 14th AUGUST, 1894.
The undersigned, Gabriel Hanotaux, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, etc.; Jacques Haussmann, Director of Political and Commercial Affairs at the Colonial Office, etc.; Joseph Devolder, ex-Minister of Justice and ex-Minister of the Interior and Education of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, Vice-President of the Supreme Council of the Congo Free State, etc.; and Baron Constant Goffinet, etc., Plenipotentiaries of the French Republic and of the Congo Free State, deputed to prepare an agreement relative to the boundaries of the respective possessions of the two states and to settle the other questions pending between them, have agreed upon the following provisions:—
Boundary between the Congo Free State and French Congo, Oubanghi, etc.
Art. 1. The frontier between the Congo Free State and the Colony of French Congo, after following the thalweg of the Oubanghi up to the confluence of the Mbomou[226] and of the Ouelle (or Welle), shall be constituted as follows:—(1) The thalweg of the Mbomou up to its source. (2) A straight line joining the watershed between the Congo and Nile Basins. From this point the frontier of the Free State is constituted by the said watershed up to its intersection with long. 30° east of Greenwich (27° 40′ east of Paris).
Arts. 2 and 3. French right of Police over the waters of the Mbomou.
Renunciation by Free State of Occupation or Influence over certain Districts. Watershed of Congo and Nile Basins, etc.
Art. 4. The Free State binds herself to renounce all occupation, and to exercise in the future no political influence west or north of a line thus determined:—Long. 30° east of Greenwich (27° 40′ east of Paris), starting from its intersection of the watershed of the Congo and Nile Basins, up to the point where it meets the parallel 5° 30′, and then along that parallel to the Nile.
Art. 5. Ratifications to be exchanged within three months.
Art. 6. In token of which the Plenipotentiaries have drawn up the present arrangement and affixed their signatures.