Bolglan] CONGO, FRANCE, GREAT BRITAIN 127 VII AGREEMENT BETWEEN FRANCE AND BELGIUM , FEBRUARY 5, 1895 , REAFFIRMED DEC . 23 , 1908 Art. 1. The Belgian Government recognizes that France has a right of pre-emption over its possessions on the Congo in case of their alienation by sale or exchange in whole or in part . Any exchange of territory with a foreign Power , any placing of the said territories in whole or in part in the hands of a foreign State, or of a foreign company invested with rights of sovereignty, will also give occasion to France's right of pre-emption, and will become therefore the object of pre liminary negotiation between the Government of the French Republic and the Belgian Government .

ART. 2. The Belgian Government declares that there shall never be gratuitous cession of all or a portion of the said possessions.

ART . 3. The arrangements contemplated in the above articles apply to the whole of the territories of the Belgian Congo .

VIII ART. II OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE CONGO STATE , MAY 9 , 1906 The boundary between the Independent State of the Congo , on the one hand , and the Anglo -Egyptian Soudan on the other, starting from the point of intersection from the south of the meridian of 30° longitude east of Greenwich with the watershed between the Nile and the Congo shall follow the line of that watershed in a general north -westerly direction until it reaches the frontier between the Independent State of the Congo and the French Congo .

Nevertheless the strip of territory , 25 kilometres in breadth , stretching from the watershed between the Nile and the Congo up to the western shore of Lake Albert, and including the port of Mahagi, of which a lease was granted to the Independent State of the Congo by Article 2 of the agreement of May 12 , 1894, shall continue in the possession of that State on the 1 The details of this boundary and of the boundary from Sabinio where German , British, and Belgian territory meet are given in the agreement of February 3 , 1915 .