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and to formulate and discuss proposals
for amending them in points in which they
may be found in the course of the joint
enquiry to affect the opium trade and the
opium habit in the Far East.
If this
view of the procedure to be followed com-
mens itself to the American Government
and to the other Powers, the Instructions
outlined in Your Excellency's Note of the
8th of May will perhaps be reconsidered.
As those instructions are
worded, they would require the delegates
of the several Governments to undertake a
more responsible and extensive investiga-
tion than time permits, and to make propo-
sals for altering the administrative regu-
lations of their respective countries
before the Commission had entered upon its
enquiry or had ascertained the precise na-
ture of the remedies which the present
circumstances