In any further communication on this subject, please quote
No. F 4231/16/10.
and address→→
not to any person by name,
but to-
"The Under-Secretary of State,"
Foreign Office,
London, S.W.1.
Sir,
FOREIGN OFFICE.
S.W.1.
25th July, 1933.
53
137
(391
The 28 an
52192/28
Suditó
bony to Hr. Kong
In reply to your letter No. 13702/33 of the 26th June,
respecting the extent to which the Convention and Statute of
the Freedom of Transit, signed at Barcelona on the 20th April,
1921, applies to the export and import of arms, I am directed
by His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs to inform you that he has given further consideration
to this question in accordance with the views expressed in your
letter.
2. It appears to have been overlooked that on the 19th
November, 1928 the Law Officers of the Crown delivered, at the
request of your Department, an opinion, in the case of the
seizure at Singapore in 1927 of certain arms and explosives
on board the German steamship "Deike Rickmers", which deals
with the effect of the Barcelona Convention and Statute on the
transit of arms. The Law Officers held that the seizure of
the goods in question on the grounds of their destination for
China was contrary to the provisions of the Convention.
Accordingly the statement contained in Foreign Office letter
(28) No. F 3030/160/10 of the 11th May last to the effect that the
Convention expressly excludes the export and import of arms
from the scope of the Convention requires to be modified.
The statement, however, which occurs in the letter from the
(14) Board of Trade of the 14th September, 1932, referred to in On 92596/32
paragraph 1 of your letter, to the effect that there are
provisions
The Under-Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.
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