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No. 3. No. F.O. 29/32. (F. 1 2/1008/10). Youb Excellency,— Chinese Legation, London W. 1, 27th March, 1929. Under instructions received from the Wai Chiao Pu, Nanking, I have the honour to acquaint Your Excellency that the State funeral service for the late Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the First President of the Republic of China, will take place on the Ist June next, and that invitations have been sent to all friendly nations to participate in the ceremony. The National Government ventures to hope that the friendly nations which have been thus invited will be able to afford their representatives the credentials of a " Special Commissioner " or some equivalent rank. The National Government also hopes that two or four saplings, each of two kinds of trees peculiar to the country represented be sent to the special official in charge of afforestation at the mausoleum of Dr. Sun at Nanking to be planted as a permanent Memorial to the late Kuomintang leader. It may not be possible for these saplings to reach Nanking on any fixed date owing to the distance of the country forwarding them, but it is hoped that they will be dispatched as soon as convenient, when they will be planted immediately on arrival. I shall be obliged if Your Excellency will be so good as to favour me with a reply in due course. I have, &c., W. C. Chen, Charge d'Affaires ad interim. The Right Honourable Sir Austen Chamberlain, K.G., M.P., H.B.M.'s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Office, S.W. 1.

No. 29. New Zealand, Dominions No. 197. Sir, —- Downing Street, 11th. May, 1929. I have the honour to transmit, for the information of His Majesty's Government in New Zealand, the accompanying copies of an extract from the House of Commons Official Report of the 22nd April, containing a question and answer on the subject of the grant to Germany of a mandate for one of her former colonial possessions. I have, &c., L. S. AMERY. Governor-General His Excellency General Sir C. Fergusson, Bart., LL.D., G.C.M.G., K.C.8., D.5.0., M.V.0., &c.

Enclosure. Extract from House of Commons Official Report dated 22nd April, 1929. Ex-Gekman Colonies (Mandates). 34. Lieut.-Commander Kenworthy asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when the subject of Germany being given a mandate for one of her former colonies was last under discussion ; and what was the attitude expressed by His Majesty's Government ? Sir A. Chamberlain : The mandates over the former German colonial territory (which derived from the Treaty of Versailles, and not from the League of Nations) were definitely allotted to the existing holders, and there has never, so far as I am aware, been any suggestion that any of the existing mandatories desired to be relieved of its responsibilities. Our position was explained to Germany at the time of the Conference of Locarno and has been more than once restated since. If a new mandate were to be called into being, or, in the unlikely event of an existing mandate being vacated, we should be prepared to consider the claim of Germany as of any other Great Power, Member of the League, but we can make no engagement in advance in regard to so hypothetical a contingency. Lieut.-Commander Kenworthy : Will the right honourable gentleman be good enough to answer the first part of the question as to when this matter was last under discussion ? Sir A. Chamberlain : It has not really been under discussion, since, I think, the Locarno negotiations. No doubt there have been references to it since that.