'yMr..Bevir 2/2/39. 0 Mr.Dixon 3/2/39. (qua -aviation) Mr. Bigg 3/2. Mr. Acheson 3/2. X Sir J.Shuckburgh 6/2/39. 'V/o9 pHR/\PHicxSl£ 'iUiLIWftAM from the Secretary of btate lor the Colonies to the Governor of Fiji. (Sent 8o0 p,nu 6th February ,1939* ) NOol70 Secret., 15, Your telegram Notf18* uecr-jta The f jllowing is the text of the reply of the Secretary of ^tatc for Dominion iiffaira to the telegram elated 2£nd of January from the Governor General of New ;;ealand0 Begins Reference your telegram Noo9 of the 22nd January., His j-iajesty's Government in the United Kingdom agree that Conference should meet "by the middle of i;arch if possible or as soon a3 may be practicable thereafter They are endeavouring to arrange for United Kingdom Service representatives to be available at that time and further telegram will be sent as to this as soon as possible* As regards agenda of.Conference on the defence side, His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom fully recognise importance of the various matters referred to in your telegram. I£ will be appreciated however that adequate consideration of some of the topics mentioned, edch as -those set out under (d), (g) and (h) in your telegram, would call for ajmeeting more in the natnre of an Imperial Conference in which representatives of other Dominions and India might wish to participate. 1% is assumed that on such topics the task of the present Conference will be merely exploratory with a vier to drauing up reports for further com;ideration by the Governments concerned., This would not apply to immediate practical problems such as those mentioned under (a), (b) and (c), which it is thought could be fully discussed at the Conference with a view to reaching definite conclusions Copy to go on 86059/39 and 621 . concluaion&o His liajesty's Government in the United Kingdom agree that (3) should be included in Agenda. Ends0 the You will see fron/above the questions of Defence which are going to be discussed at the Conference p andjthe following documents will shortly be forwarded to you*, (1) Foreign Oftice memorandum on the general position vis-a-vis the United States Government, relative to the four party Conference which it is proposed to hold, to consider the development of air communication in the '"estern pacific (2) a memorandum on development of Civil aviation (3) Colonial Office memorandum on the position of unattached islands in the area. These will be the briefs for the United Kingdom representatives at the Conference*.