A Chara,
With reference to your letter of the 19 inst.¹ enclosing a copy of a letter from Mr. Stephenson concerning the Amendments to Article 16 of the Covenant, I am instructed by the Minister to inform you that he is of the opinion that group ratification will be opposed by Canada and South Africa at the Imperial Conference if they realise how detrimental it is to our status as inde­pendent members of the League.

The Minister has decided not to be a party to the group ratification of the Article 16 Amendments and he requests that you would be good enough to put off Mr. Stephenson with some evasive reply or with a reply which would induce Mr. Stephenson to state explicitly the reasons why it is of importance that the Dominions should always be included in British ratifications.
[matter omitted]