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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
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CONFIDENTIAL.
[8198]
No. 1.
13187
[February 23.]
SECTION
349
Sir,
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.—(Received February 23.)
Downing Street, February 21, 1914.
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th February and to request you to inform Secretary Sir Edward Grey that be concurs in the abandonment of the proposal contained in your letter of the 22nd January.
2. At present The Hague Opium Convention has not yet been signed on behalf of the colonies of Barbados, Bermuda, and Mauritius, the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the protectorates in South Africa. Legislation is, however, being passed in the three first-named colonies, and Mr. Harcourt has no doubt that he will be shortly in a position to request the signature of the convention on their behalf.
3. As regards Zanzibar he would prefer to await the views of the acting consul- general and British agent, but, if the matter should press, he will be happy to request an expression of those views by telegraph.
4. The High Commissioner for South Africa has been asked by telegraph for an early and telegraphic reply to Mr. Harcourt's despatch of the 22nd January as to the adhesion of the South African protectorates, and I am to add that the convention may now be signed on behalf of the Union of South Africa without further delay.
am, &c. (For the Under-Secretary of State),
GEORGE W. JOHNSON.
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