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No. 19. New Zealand, No. 64. My Lord,— Downing Street, 19th March, 1918. With reference to Your Excellency's telegram of the 26th December, 1917, I have the honour to transmit to you, for the information of your Ministers, the accompanying copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Minister at Panama, on the subject of New Zealand's New Year greeting to the Allies. I have, &c, WALTER H. LONG. Governor-General His Excellency the Right Hon. the Earl of Liverpool, P.0., G.C.M.G., M.V.0., &c.

Enclosure. No. 1 Treaty. Sir, — Panama, 24th January, 1918. I have the honour to inform you that I conveyed to the President of the Republic of Panama the telegraphic New Year greetings of the Governor-General of New Zealand, transmitted to me in your telegram of the 31st December, and have been requested by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to communicate to the Governor-General through you an expression of the warmest thanks of President Valdes for His Excellency's good wishes for a happy outcome of the cause of the Allies in 1918, to which the Republic of Panama has the honour to join, and also to convey the wish of this Government for a prosperous future for New Zealand which has given in the present world conflict such great proofs of loyalty in sending to the battlefront so many of its citizens, some of whom the people of Panama have had the good fortune to meet here on the way back to their homes after gallantly complying with their duty to the Empire. I have, <fec, C. Mallet. The Right Honourable Arthur J. Balfour, 0.M., M.P., &c, London S.W.

No. 20. New Zealand, Dominions No. 299. My Lord,— Downing Street, 29th May, 1918. I have the honour to transmit to Your Excellency, for the information of your Ministers, copy of Army Council Instruction No. 497 of 1918, regarding the dates on which Army Entrance Examinations will be held in future and the governing dates of age for admission thereto. I have, &e, WALTER H. LONG. Governor-General His Excellency the Right Hon. the Earl of Liverpool, P.C., G.C.M.G., M.V.0., &c.

Enclosure. Army Council Instruction No. 497 of 1918. War Office, Bth May, 1918. 497. Army Entrance Examinations. — Dates. — Age-limits. 1. It has been decided for the present to extend the length of the course of instruction at the Royal Military Academy and the Royal Military College to eighteen months. Candidates will in future be admitted twice a year—viz., in February and August. 2. Commencing with 1919, two Army Entrance Examinations will be held yearly, and will usually commence in June and December. No examination will be held in March, 1919. 3. A candidate for admission to the Royal Military Academy, Royal Military College, or a Training College in India must have attained ttie age of seventeen and a half, and must not have attained the age of eighteen and a half on the governing date. The only exception will be in the case of a candidate who is serving, and has served satisfactorily, in the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, Regular Army, Special Reserve. Indian Army Reserve of Officers, Militia, Territorial Force, or the Forces of the overseas Dominions, and is recommended by his CO. as suitable in all respects for appointment to a permanent commission in the Regular Army, in which case the upper age-limit will be twenty-one.