22 December 1958
British Consulate General in Leopoldville wrote to the Federal Government Minister of External Affairs in Salisbury. He noted that as the frontier between Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo was situated in Lake Mweru and on the thalweg of the Luapula in a part of its course, it was appropriate for each of the riparian states to exercise their sovereign rights in the waters falling respectively under their jurisdiction.
The maps showed the frontier deviating from the centre of the Lake and passing to the west of Kilwa Island which, the Belgians said, was a peninsula attached to Belgian territory.
In the same year, 1958, Mr Bowles visited Brussels and discussed the border issues with M. Grosjean, Inspector General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. No detailed records are available on this meeting, save to note that the frantic efforts between the British and Belgian authorities were taking place precisely at the time when the struggle for independence of the two states, particularly Congo, were getting intense. Congo gained independence in 1960; Northern Rhodesia got it four years later. In 1958 the British settlers were holding on to the territory and were keen to ensure that no land that they claimed to be theirs was surrendered to natives in the Congo.
Read more about this topic: Luapula Province Border Dispute
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