1026
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 44

specting the commercial relations of the two countries,
signed at Madrid on the 26th April last.

I have, &c.,
GRANVILLE.

The Officer Administering the Government of
New Zealand.

CONVENTION between the Governments of Great Britain
and Spain respecting the Commercial Relations of the
two Countries. (Signed at Madrid, 26th April, 1886.)

THE Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Government
of Her Majesty the Queen-Regent of Spain, being desirous of
facilitating the commercial relations of their respective
countries, have named as their Representatives for that
purpose,—

The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: Sir F. Clare Ford,
Her Britannic Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary at Madrid, &c. ;

The Government of Her Majesty the Queen Regent of
Spain: His Excellency Señor Don Segismundo Moret y
Prendergast, Minister of State, &c. ;

Who, being duly authorized by their respective Govern-
ments, have agreed upon the following articles :—

ARTICLE I.

The Government of Her Majesty the Queen-Regent of
Spain will grant to the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, and to Her Britannic Majesty’s colonies and
foreign possessions, most-favoured-nation treatment in all
that concerns commerce, navigation, and consular rights
and privileges in Spain and in the Spanish colonies and
foreign possessions, co-extensive in amount of benefit with
that accorded to France and Germany under the treaties of
the 6th February, 1882, and the 12th July, 1883.

The provisions of this Convention shall come into operation
on the 1st July next, unless by mutual consent any other
date may be fixed, and on condition that on that date the
alcoholic scale, according to which duties are levied on
Spanish wines on their introduction into the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, is modified in accordance
with the terms of the following article.

ARTICLE II.

The Government of Her Britannic Majesty will continue
to grant to Spain, her colonies and foreign possessions, most-
favoured-nation treatment in the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and in Her Britannic Majesty’s colonies
and foreign possessions, in all that concerns commerce,
navigation, and consular rights and privileges.

They will, in addition, apply to Parliament for the neces-
sary authority to provide that the limit of the lower half of
the alcoholic scale shall extend up to, but not exceed, 30
degrees of proof spirit.

ARTICLE III.

The present Convention has been drawn up subject to the
sanction of the Legislatures of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland and of Spain respectively. When ap-
proved, it shall remain in force until the 30th June, 1892 ;
and in case neither of the High Contracting Parties should
have notified, twelve months before the said date, the inten-
tion of terminating it, the present Convention shall remain
binding until the expiration of one year from the day on
which either of the two High Contracting Parties shall have
denounced it.

Done in duplicate at Madrid, this 26th day of April, 1886.
(L.S.) F. CLARE FORD.

Sir Clare Ford to Señor Moret.

Madrid, 26th April, 1886.

M. LE MINISTRE,—I have the honour to inform your Excel-
lency that I have received the authorization of the Earl of
Rosebery, Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, to sign with your Excellency the Convention
which we had agreed to draw up for facilitating the com-
mercial relations between Great Britain and Spain, and a
copy of which I have the honour to transmit herewith to
your Excellency.

I shall feel obliged if your Excellency will name a day
when I can proceed to the Ministry of State in order to sign
the Convention in question.

Before doing so, however, I have been instructed to place
on record the following points, on which we are also agreed,
but which it has not been thought necessary to insert in the
body of the instrument which I propose to sign with your
Excellency :—

The first point refers to wines in bottle, which it is under-
stood may be excluded, at the option of Her Majesty’s Go-
vernment, from the stipulations of Article II. of the Con-
vention.

The second point refers to a possible future division of the
lower half of the alcoholic scale. It is understood that

nothing in the Convention shall preclude Her Majesty’s Go-
vernment from dividing, if at some future time it shall be
found desirable to do so, the present lower half of the
alcoholic scale at a point not above 15 degrees, and treating
wines below that point differently from wines above it.

It is further agreed that it shall be open to any British
colony to withdraw from the present Convention on notice
to this effect being given by Her Majesty’s Minister at
Madrid to the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs within a
year after the date of its signature.

The agreement on the part of the Government of Her
Majesty the Queen-Regent of Spain on the above points
shall be deemed to be recorded by the reply which I have
the honour to solicit your Excellency to be so so good as
to address to me in a note on the subject.

I have, &c.,
FRANCIS CLARE FORD.

[Translation.]

Ministry of State, the Palace, 26th April, 1886.

EXCELLENCY,—In acknowledging the receipt of your note of
to-day, I have the honour to state that I agree with its con-
tents, as also with the draft of Convention which it en-
closes.

The Convention and the note faithfully represent the
agreement to which we have have happily come, being the
result of the discussion which was entered into since your
arrival at this Court, with a view to facilitate the com-
mercial relations between Great Britain and Spain.

It is my duty to inform your Excellency that the Spanish
Government agree with the three points contained in your
note, and consider that Her Britannic Majesty’s Govern-
ment are authorized to exclude from the reduction which
is to be made in the alcoholic scale the wines which arrive
in bottles into the United Kingdom.

They agree also that the Convention which we are about
to sign will not hinder Her Britannic Majesty’s Government
from dividing into two parts the lower half of the alcoholic
scale, that is to say, that part which terminates at 30 de-
grees, in such a way that the wines below 15 degrees may be
treated differently from those above it.

With regard to Her Britannic Majesty’s colonies, it is
understood that if, within a year after the date of this Con-
vention, and reckoned from the day on which it is signed,
any of the said colonies declare their intention to withdraw
from the present Convention, the said colony will be ex-
cluded from the stipulations contained therein.

I trust that this reply will meet the wishes which were
expressed in the concluding portion of your Excellency’s
note, and that, therefore, we may sign the Convention, a
translation of which I enclose, that you may examine it and
compare it with the English text.

In concluding my reply to the note which your Excellency
transmitted to me to-day, and considering as satisfactorily
terminated for both countries the negotiations which have
occupied your Excellency since the commencement of your
mission, I fulfil a pleasing duty in conveying to your Excel-
lency the expression of my most sincere gratitude for the
frankness and loyalty with which you have conducted these
negotiations, and for the sincere interest with which, acting
within the instructions you had received from your Govern-
ment, you have treated the representations which, in the
name of Spain, I have had the honour to make to you,
thanks to which the commercial relations between Spain
and England will henceforth rest on a solid and just basis,
thus strengthening, in a firm and lasting manner, the
friendship which from of old exists between the two nations.

I avail, &c.,
S. MORET.

Sir Clare Ford to Señor Moret.

Madrid, 9th May, 1886.

M. LE MINISTRE, — I have the honour to inform your
Excellency that on the 26th ultimo I transmitted to the
Earl of Rosebery a copy of the Convention which we had
signed in duplicate on that day for facilitating the com-
mercial relations between Great Britain and Spain.

Her Majesty’s Government had not previously seen the
whole of the Spanish rendering of the English text of that
Convention, and now that they have done so they have
called my attention to one phrase in it which occurs at the
end of Article II. The English text runs as follows :
“ They will, in addition, apply to Parliament for the neces-
sary authority to provide that the limit of the lower half of
the alcoholic scale shall extend up to, but not exceed, 30
degrees of proof spirit.”

The Spanish translation is as follows : “ Pedirá ademas al
Parlamento la autorizacion necesaria para extender el limite
inferior de la escala alcohólica de los vinos desde los 26 á los
30 grados inclusive.”

Her Majesty’s Government consider that the Spanish
translation with regard to the portion of the Convention