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A.—2

traffic, the Government of India will take steps to ensure that any private enterprise to which the erection of a high-power station in India may be entrusted shall be under an obligation to receive at that station traffic sent from Government stations in this country, if so required, and to send acknowledgments, requests for repetition, and other usual service matter in connection with such traffic, whether received by the privately owned station in India or otherwise, upon reasonable terms. I have, &c, DEVONSHIRE. Governor-General His Excellency the Right Hon. Viscount Jellicoe, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.V.0., fee.

No. 16. New Zealand, No. 87. My Lord, — Downing Street, 25th April, 1923. With reference to Your Excellency's telegram of the 9th April, I have the honour to request you to inform your Ministers that His Majesty's Ambassador at Washington has been requested to inform the United States Government officially of the appointment of Mr. William James Stevenson as the official representative in the United States of the Customs Department of New Zealand, and to ask for all proper facilities to be extended to him. I have, &c, DEVONSHIRE. Governor-General His Excellency the Right Hon. Viscount Jellicoe, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.V.0., fee

No. 17. New Zealand, Dominions No. 163. My Lord,— Downing Street, 10th May, 1923. With reference to my predecessor's despatch, Dominions No. 377, of the 17th October, 1922, I have the honour to transmit to Your Excellency, for the information of your Ministers, a copy of a statement made in the House of Commons on the 3rd May regarding British policy in Iraq. A similar statement was made by me in the House of Lords on the same date. I have, fee, DEVONSHIRE. Governor-General His Excellency the Right Hon. Viscount Jellicoe, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.V.0., fee.

Enclosure. Extract from House ok Commons Hansabd, dated 3rd May, 1923. Lieutenant-Colonel Spender-Clay asked the Prime Minister, Whether Sir Percy Cox, on leaving Iraq, has been authorized to make any further announcement of policy ; if so, what; and whether such policy has been discusssed with, and agreed by, King Feisal and the Arab Government ? *X H» . $ ijfi Mr. Baldwin. —An announcement has been made to-day by Sir Percy Cox in Bagdad, with the authority of His Majesty's Government and with the full approval of King Feisal and his Government. The announcement was as follows :— " It will be remembered that in the autumn of last year, after a lengthy exchange of views, it was decided between the Governments of His Britannic Majesty and His Majesty King Feisal that a Treaty of Alliance should be entered into between His Britannic Majesty and His Majesty the King of Iraq. This Treaty, which was signed on the 10th October, 1922, and the term of which was to be twenty years (subject to periodical revision at the desire of either party), provided for the establishment of an independent constitutional Government in Iraq, enjoying a certain measure of advice and assistance from Great Britain of the nature and extent indicated in the text of the Treaty itself and of subsidiary agreements which were to be made thereunder." Since then the Iraq Government has made great strides along the pjath of independent and stable existence, and has been able successfully to assume administrative responsibility, and both parties being equally anxious that the commitments and responsibilities of His Majesty's Government in respect of Iraq should be terminated as soon as possible, it is considered that the period of the Treaty