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MY LORD,
No. 86A.
(WESTERN PACIFIC: NEW HEBRIDES.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
[New Hebrides: Draft Order in Council.]
Royal Courts of Justice,
October 29, 1907.
We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified to us in Mr. Just's letter of the 12th October last, stating that in our report of the 18th July, 1907, we said that it appeared that the Anglo-French Convention of the 20th October, 1906, respecting the New Hebrides might be made municipal law by Order in Council.
*
That as we should perceive from the enclosed copy of a note addressed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the French Chargé d'Affaires on the 29th August last (a note similar to which was addressed on the same date by M. Géoffray to Sir E. Grey), it had been arranged that one minor alteration should be made in the text of the Convention as proclaimed, and that it had further been arranged that the Convention should be brought into operation as soon as possible, without waiting for the arrival in the Group of the members of the Joint Court. That in order to render this possible, the British and French Governments had agreed to postpone for the present the coming into force of certain articles and parts of articles in the Convention, as recited in Sir E. Grey's note referred to above.
That the Order in Council of which a draft was enclosed had been prepared in order to make the Convention, as modified by the notes exchanged on the 29th August, legally binding on the Group. That as your Lordship was advised that the New Hebrides would not be part of the British dominions, the Order was pro- posed to be made under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890, and all other powers thereto enabling His Majesty-not under the British Settlements Act, 1887.
That the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific had expressed their concurrence in the draft Order in Council. That Mr. Just was to enclose, for our information, a copy of telegraphic corre- spondence which had passed with Sir E. im Thurn on the subject.
That he was to request that we would take the matter into our consideration and report
Whether the draft Order in Council was proper and sufficient for its purpose? We have taken the matter into our consideration, and, in obedience to your Lordship's commands, have the honour to
Report-
That as initialled by us the draft Order in Councilt is, in our opinion, sufficient for the purpose for which it is intended.
The Right Honourable
The Earl of Elgin, K.G.,
&c..
• No. 79.
&c.,
&c.
We have, &c.,
JOHN L. WALTON. W. S. ROBSON.
The draft Order in Council was in identical terms with the Order in Council as passed on 2nd November, 1907.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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