A.—2.

No. 2.

(Circular.) Sir, — Downing Street, 6th June, 1907. I have the honour to inform you that persons possessing Certificates issued by Colonial Governments of Naturalization as British subjects occasionally apply for the grant of Foreign Office passports to enable them to travel on the Continent of Europe, and that on such an occasion a difficulty is apt to arise as regards the identity of the applicant with the person named in the Certificate. With a view, therefore, to guarding against the chance of such passports being fraudulently or improperly obtained, I have considered it necessary to prescribe that before recommending an applicant for the grant of a passport he shall produce evidence sufficient to establish his identity with the person named in the Certificate of Naturalization which he produces. For this purpose it would be of great assistance if the Certificates of Naturalization granted by Colonial Governments contained authenticated signatures of the holders, as is the case with Certificates granted in the United Kingdom, and I should be glad to learn that your Government is willing to assist in the matter by giving the necessary instructions for this course to be adopted as regards any Certificates of Naturalization granted in the Colony under your Government. I have, &c, ELGIN. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

No. 3.

(Circular.) Sir, — Downing Street, 7th June, 1907. I have the honour to transmit to you, for publication in the Colony, a copy of an Order of His Majesty in Council giving effect to a Treaty of Extradition between Great Britain and Peru which was concluded on the 26th of January, 1904, and ratified at Lima on the 30th of November, 1906. I have, &c, ELGIN. The Officer Administering the Government, New Zealand. [For enclosure, see New Zealand Gazette, No. 67, of the Ist August, 1907, page 2324.]

No. 4.

(Miscellaneous.) My Lord, — Downing Street, 31st July, 1907. I have the honour to request you to inform your Ministers that the Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed to consider the Radiotelegraphic Convention has now reported in favour of the ratification of the Convention and His Majesty's Government have decided that they will ratify it. I shall be glad to learn in due course whether your Government desires to adhere to the Convention, and in this connection I have to draw your attention to Article V of the final Protocol, which provides that each of the Colonies may separately adhere to, and may separately withdraw from, the Convention. The advantages likely to accrue to the United Kingdom from the ratification of the Convention appear to His Majesty's Government to be fairly summed up in paragraph 54 of the Report of the Select Committee, copies of which were forwarded to you in my " Library " despatch of the 19th of July. Your Ministers will no doubt recognise that the arguments of the Committee are in the main equally applicable to the Colonies; and I trust that your Government will agree that the Convention has been framed with careful regard to the interests of His Majesty's Dominions beyond the seas.

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