Occasionally statements appear in the Press that the British Government
contemplates handing over the Island-of Jamaica to the United States in part payment of our debt. It is satisfactory, therefore, to note the Government's official denial through its spokesman in the House of Commons, Mr. Arthur Ponsonby, to the effect that the Government have no intention of ceding either Jamaica or any other British possession to a foreign Power. The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs took occasion to observe, however, that the predecessors of the present Government had com- mitted themselves to an agreement which might involve a certain small cession of territory. This reference is presumably to the relinquishment of some British territory in the neighbourhood of Italian Somaliland, a rectification of frontier lines which has long been expected.
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