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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

TELEN C.O.885

Reference :-

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

(GENERAL NEW ZEALAND: QUEENSLAND:)

:

FOREIGN OFFICE to LAW OFFICERS.

[Accession of New Zealand and Queensland to Industrial Property Convention, 1883; and their position as to Additional Act, 1900.]

GENTLEMEN,

Foreign Office, January 10, 1905,

I HAVE the honour, by direction of the Marquess of Lansdowne, to transmit for your consideration the papers noted in the accompanying list relating to the accession of New Zealand to the Industrial Property Convention, 1883, as amended by the Additional Act of 1900, and the position of the Colonies of New Zealand and Queens- land with reference thereto.

The Industrial Property Convention, of which a copy is inclosed (Paper B), was originally concluded at Paris on the 20th March, 1883. Her late Majesty the Queen acceded for the United Kingdom on the 17th March, 1884, on the understanding that Her accession on these terms power to accede on behalf of any Colony was reserved.

was accepted on the 2nd April, 1884 (see "State Papers," vol. lxxv, p. 414).

On the 7th September, 1891, Her Majesty adhered, on behalf of New Zealand and Queensland, to the Convention of 1883 (Paper C).

It appears from a letter of the International Bureau at Berne to the Board of Trade of the 29th January, 1891 (see p. 18 of the Print, Paper A), that it was possible for British Colonies to join as independent parties or as forming one party with the mother country from the moment of their adherence. New Zealand and Queensland joined on the latter footing.

In 1900 the Powers, including Great Britain, joined in an "Additional Act," introducing into the Convention of 1883 a number of small amendments. Before signing the Act the British Delegates made a declaration to the effect that they acted on behalf of the United Kingdom alone, and reserved to Her Majesty's Government a right to adhere on behalf of any Colony (Paper D).

In 1903 His Majesty's Government instructed His Majesty's Representative

at Berne to notify the accession of New Zealand to the Convention of 1883, as modified by the Additional Act of 1900 (Paper A, No. 4).

For certain constitutional reasons connected with the Federation of Australia a similar notification on behalf of Queensland was suspended.

After some correspondence as to whether the notification should be addressed to the Government of Belgium or that of Switzerland, the International Bureau at Berne adopted the attitude that, as Great Britain had joined in the Additional Act of 1900, New Zealand and Queensland, who had acceded before 1900, were already bound by the Additional Act, but they offered, if Belgium consented, to accept the notification of the adherence of New Zealand without prejudice to the question of principle (see No. 12 in the Print, Paper A, pp. 13-16).

In a Memorandum dated the 5th November, 1903 (see p. 17 of the Print, Paper A), Mr. Risley, Legal Assistant in the Colonial Office, advised Mr. Secretary Lyttelton that the contention of the International Bureau was correct, and that, so far as regards participation in the Additional Act, New Zealand must be regarded as an appendage of Great Britain, and already bound by the Act of the mother country. He also advised that, in the declaration of the British Delegates in 1900 that they signed only for the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom must be taken to have included Queensland and New Zealand. For the actual words of this declaration see Minute on page 23 of Paper A, paragraph 3.

This view is strongly contested by Sir H. Bergne, one of the Delegates making the declaration in question, who contends that this is neither the sense in which it was accepted by the Delegates nor in accordance with the plain and simple meaning of its language. This latter view is shared by the Librarian and also by the Heads of the Commercial and Treaty Departments of this Office (see pp. 19, 23, 29-33 of the Print).

On the other hand, both Mr. Davidson, K.C., the Legal Adviser to this Depart- ment, and Mr. Hurst, the Assistant Legal Adviser, applying to the case the rules of technical legal construction, have arrived at the same conclusion as the International Bureau at Berne and Mr. Risley (see pp. 24-27, and 30 of the Print, Paper A).

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