CO129-426 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 342

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.].

13076

Rav

RF 19 MAR 15

December 22.

337

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[79799]

No. 1.

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Cheetham.

SECTION 2.

I

(No. 336. Confidential.) Sir,

Foreign Office, December 22, 1914. WITH reference to your despatch No. 129 of the 19th July, I transmit to you herewith copy of a despatel from Flis Majesty's Minister at The Hague regarding the adherence of the Egyptian Government to the International Opium Convention."

The present international situation precludes the possibility of the convention being ratified in the near future, and the adherence of the Egyptian Government is consequently no longer a matter of urgency. Moreover, a proposal by His Majesty's Government to sign the convention on behalf of Egypt as the protecting Power might cause considerable embarrassment to the Netherlands Government, as the protectorate will not have been recognised by Turkey and her allies.

I consider, therefore, that the matter should be left in abeyance for the present, and I have requested His Majesty's representative at The Hague to inform the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs, in reply to his enquiry on the subject, that His Majesty's Government would prefer that the question should stand over until the termination of hostilities.

[2820 y-2]

• Sir A. Johnstone (No. 333), December 4, 1914.

I am, &c.

E. GREY.