11

A.—s

Recommendation 6 was adopted by the Council in the following form : — "(5.) That the special attention of the contracting Lowers having treaties with China be invited to the provisions of ArticleHS of the International Opium Convention, so that the most effective stops possible should be taken to prevent the contraband trade in opium and other dangerous drugs." The Fifth Committee accepted this resolution, but added :— " The Assembly recommends to the Council that, in paragraph 5 of the latfer's resolution, it should also draw the attention of the Government of China to Article, 15 of the International Convention on Opium." The Council passed an additional resolution, reading,— " (7.) That, in view of tho world-wide interest in the a'ttitudejof the League towards tho opium question, and of the general desiro tojreduce and restrict the cultivation and production of opium to strictly medicinal and scientific purposes, tho Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium bo requested to consider and report, at its next meeting, on tho possibility of instituting an inquiry to determine approximately the average requirements of raw and prepared opium specified in Chapters I and 11 of the Convention for medicinal and scientific purposes in different countries." This was accepted with the following modifications : — " The Assembly recommends to the Council that tho inquiry referred to in paragraph 7 of the, latter's resolution should be extended to include all opium tho consumption of which may be considered legitimate, and that to this end the word ' strictly ' be; omitted, and the word ' legitimate 'be substituted for ' medicinal' and ' scientific' It further recommends to the Council the omission of the reference to prepared opium—that is to say, to opium prepared for purposes of smoking—the complete of which is provided, for in Chapter II of the Convention." Finally, the, Fifth Committee, proposed the following resolution, which was passed by the Assembly : — " The Assembly recommends the Council to request the Advisory Committee to extend their investigations to include not only the drugs mentioned in the Convention of 1912, but also all dangerous drugs of whatever origin which produce similar effects, and to advise as to the desirability of oonvoking a further international conference of States which are parties to the convention, as well as States members of the League of Nations, with a view to drawing up a convention for tho suppression of the abuse of L such drugs." The reason for asking the Advisory Committee to extend its investigations to other drugs is given in paragraph 1, page 4, of the Fifth Committee's report. As Now Zealand is a party to flu; Opium Convention, I draw your special attention to the abovementioned recommendations numbered 2 and 1, relating respectively to the submission of an annual report to the League, &c, and the adoption of importation certificates. COMMITTEE No. 6. Armenia. —The Assembly's resolution, passed on the 21st September, will be found in Document A. 107. Tho best that can be said of it is that it is weak ; but the League, may well hesitate to take the initiative where a great Power like the. United States of America has declined to act. New Admissions to the League. —On the 22nd September the Assembly considered the reports of the Sixth Committee on the renewed applications of Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to enter the League. It will be within your recollection that, although the admission of these States was postponed last year, they received intimation that they would bo allowed to take part in the technical organizations of the League. In the meantime, conditions having changed in favour of these countries, especially of the first and second (Lithuania has not yet been recognized de jure by the principal Allied Powers), it was a foregone conclusion that they would be admitted to the League this year, and they had no difficulty in obtaining the required two-thirds majority of the Assembly. It is understood that in tho case of Lithuania, the only State about whose admission any doubt has been expressed, it was felt that- her entry info the League would help smooth the way to a settlement of the difference with Poland consequent on the Vilna incident. The committee's reports are numbered respectively A. 91, A. 89, and A. 102. |ig Hungary, the only other country which had requested admission to the League this year, applied towards the end of September for a postponement of the decision of the Assembly until next year. 1 imagine it was the only course for Hungary to adopt, for I am given to understand that her admission would have been strongly opposed by the Powers forming the " Little Entente " (Czechoslovakia, Roumania, and Yugo-Slavia), and the Great Powers could not very well have looked with favour on her application in view of her recent action in Burgenland, the western portion of the old Kingdom of Hungary, which under the treaty is to be incorporated with Austria. The report of the committee, A. 152, which merely states the position, was presented to the Assembly on the 30th September and adopted. Mandates, "A" and " B " Classes. —On the 23rd September there was a long and interesting discussion in the Assembly on tho question of mandates of the " A " and " B " class, and many delegates took part therein. The report on which the debate took place is numbered A. 105. Lord Robert Cecil, one of the delegates of South Africa, 'in the course of his remarks, referred to the minutes of the sub-committee, which disclosed that the delegates of Britain, France, and Belgium, although they contended that there was no legal obligation on the part of their Governments to submit reports on the administration of territories for which mandates had not been granted, stated