A.—2,

Enclosure. Botany (Empire Study Scheme). 26. Sir H. Brittain asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether any efforts are being made by expert botanists in the direction of the study of plants of economic importance throughout the Empire ; and whether any assistance in this direction is being given by the Empire Marketing Board ? Mr. Amery : The answer to both parts of the question is in the affirmative. A grant of £4,000 for five years from the Empire Marketing Fund has been promised to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The grant will be devoted partly to the employment of an economic botanist to be attached to the Royal Botanic Gardens, who will be available either to visit the Dominions and colonies from time to time or to set free a superior officer officer of the Kew staff to undertake overseas missions, and partly to sending botanical collectors to various parts of the world to study and bring home plants of economic importance for cultivation at Kew and distribution to the Dominions and colonies. Sir H. Brittain : How many is it proposed to send to different parts of the Empire from Kew ? Mr. Amery : The number has not been fixed.

No. 33. New Zealand, Dominions No. 376. Sir, — Downing Street, 30th June, 1927. I have the honour to transmit, for the information of His Majesty's Government in New Zealand, the accompanying copies of a parliamentary paper, Cmd. 2889, containing the report of the British Representative to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on the Committee of the Council of the League of Nations on Article 11 of the Covenant. I have, &c., L. S. AMERY. Governor-General His Excellency Sir C. Ferguson, Bart., L.L.D., G.C.M.G., K.C.8., D.5.0., M.Y.0., &c.

Enclosure. League of Nations : Committee of the Council on Article il of the Covenant. Re-port of the British Representative to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Viscount Cecil to Sir Austen Chamberlain. Sir, — Geneva, 16th March, 1927. You will remember that at the first session of the Preparatory Committee on the Disarmament Conference, in May, 1926, the French representative submitted certain proposals for the rapid working of the organs of the League in cases of emergency, particularly with reference to articles 11 and 16 of the Covenant. In September last the Council referred these proposals to the Committee of the Council for examination, and in December it approved the proposal of the Committee of the Council to make a special study of article 11. The Committee of the Council therefore charged a small sub-committee, consisting of the Belgian, British, and Roumanian representatives, to meet in London in February and draft a report for consideration at its session fixed for the 14th March. 2. I transmit to you herewith a copy of this report as finally approved yesterday by the Committee of the Council. It will be seen that the committee has made certain changes in the draft originally submitted to it by the sub-committee of three. 3. Ido not think that any of the changes can be said to be of capital importance. A number of them are purely verbal emendations. In regard to the remainder, I would offer only the following observations : — 4. The new passage in Chapter 111 (b) was inserted, after a laborious search for the correct formula, on the suggestion of the Secretary-General. Evidently at a time of crisis the presidency of the Council might be held by an interested party, and against that eventuality it was necessary to make some provision of this kind. 5. It will be seen that Chapter 111 (d) has been practically redrafted. This was necessary in order to meet the views of certain representatives who feared that the original text was too much in the nature of a reglement which might tie the hands of the Council by prescribing a procedure from which they would be unable to depart. I considered these fears groundless myself; the point had not escaped the three members of the sub-committee in London, and they had inserted at various points passages which made it quite clear that they were anxious to avoid this difficulty. However, it was necessarv to allay the fears and apprehensions of certain members, and the new text may be an improvement on the old. The passage inserted at the end of Chapter 111 (d) was drafted on the proposal of the Secretary-General.

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