A.—2,

No. 18. New Zealand, Dominions No. 184. Sir, Downing Street, 23rd March, 1927. With reference to my predecessor's despatch, Dominions No. 112, of the 12th March, 1924, and connected correspondence, 1 have the honour to request Your Excellency to invite the attention of your Ministers to the report of the Forestry Special Sub-Committee of the Imperial Conference, 1926, copies of which are enclosed, and to the resolution adopted by the Conference on the recommendation of the sub-committee, which reads as follows " The Conference, appreciating the importance of forestry to the Empire as a whole and to its constituent parts,- " (a) Takes favourable note of recent developments of effective organization within the Empire as exemplified by the Standing Committee on Empire Forestry, the Imperial Forestry Institute, and the Empire Forestry Association, and draws special attention to the need for co-operation in all lines of forest research : " (6) Welcomes the invitation of the Governments of Australia and New Zealand to hold the third Empire Forestry Conference in those Dominions in 1928, and recommends to the Governments of the various parts of the Empire active preparation for and participation in that Conference ; and further notes with appreciation the invitation by the Government of the Union of South Africa for the Empire Forestry Conference of 1933 to be held in that Dominion : " (c) Refers the important question of constituting an Empire Forestry Bureau to the Empire Forestry Conference of 1928." 2. With reference to paragraph (b) of the resolution, I am informed that the Standing Committee on Empire Forestry (which was set up in accordance with Resolution VI of the Empire Forestry Conference, Canada, 1923) have now prepared the questionnaire to which reference is made in Appendix 2bl of the subcommittee's report, and propose shortly to issue this questionnaire to the authorities concerned. It is thought that details, both as regards the compilation of replies to the questionnaire and as regards the other arrangements in connection with the holding of the Conference in Australia and New Zealand in 1928, could also best be settled by direct correspondence between the Standing Committee and the various forestry authorities concerned. I have, &c., L. S. AMERY. Governor-General His Excellency General Sir C. Eergusson, Bart., LL.D., G.C.M.G., K.C.8., D.5.0., M.V.0., &c.

No. 19. New Zealand, Dominions No. 191. Blit, — Downing Street, 25th March, 1927. I have the honour to transmit to Your Excellency, for the information of your Ministers, the accompanying copies of parliamentary questions and answers of the 15th March on the subject of poison-gas factories in Soviet Russia. 1 have, &c., L. S. AMERY. Governor-General His Excellency General Sir C. Eergusson, Bart., LL.D., G.C.M.G., K.C.8., D.5.0., M.Y.0., &c.,

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