CO129-397 - Public Offices & Others - 1912 — Page 20

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Any further communication should be addressed to:~~-~

THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY,

at the address given opposite,

The following letter and number should

be quoted:-

C. 2,091.

Telegraphic Address:

COLASTA, LONDON, Telephone No.:-1362 Victoria.

Sir,

-336

19

BOARD OF TRADE, Rraf 29 MAR 12

(COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT),

7.0

GWYDYR HOUSE,

WHITEHALL,

LONDON, S.W.

28th March, 1912.

I am directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 5,468 of March 6th in which you express Mr Secretary Harcourt's opinion that the drafting of the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the Hague Opium Convention should be undertaken by this Department, and that the President should be in charge of the measure in Parliament.

In reply, I am to state that the Board could not undertake this task in view of the heavy parliamentary work which is engaging their attention during the present Session, and that they are opinion that a measure of this character is not one which falls within their proper functions. These functions have regard to matters relating to the maintenance and promotion of the Trade of the United Kingdom, whereas the measures contemplated by the Convention are primarily designed to benefit the interests not of the United Kingdom but of His Majesty's Eastern Possessions and Colonies. Their effect on the trade interests of this country is purely incidental, and so far as it goes that effect must necessarily be of a restrictive character.

Mr Harcourt will be aware that the Board of Trade

The Under Secretary of State,

Colonial Office.

were