ABSTRACT
In Paris, Hanotaux insisted that agreement must be reached between the two governments before the proposal for annexation was put to the Belgian Parliament. Meanwhile within Belgium, many, including Thys and the commercial interests operating in the Congo, favoured Belgian annexation, and a Comite d'action pour l'oeuvre nationale africaine was set up by admirers of Leopold and officers who had served in the Congo, to promote the annexation proposals. 'The takeover of the Congo', wrote Le Patriote, 'will be the downfall of the Right'. Why, it was also asked, was a takeover being proposed, only five years after the agreement with Leopold? On 7 December, therefore, de Burlet wrote to Leopold turning down his debt proposals as impractical, since they would never pass Parliament. He also rejected the Societe de Cultures and objected that its British membership might well give rise to difficulties with France and Germany.
