[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[25599]
No. 1.
REC
[July 23.]
SECTION 1.
Mr. Whitelaw Reid to Sir Edward Grey,~(Received July 23.)
Sir,
American Embassy, London, July 12, 1908. WITH reference to my note of the 8th May last relating to the subject of the opium trade in China, I have the honour to inform you, under instructions from my Government, that the United States' Opium Commission is now at work on the question with a view to limiting the use and transportation of the drug in the United States, such use and transportation having already been restricted in the Philippine Islands.
The investigations to date show clearly the opium question to be of the highest importance to the United States, and the Commission are therefore also considering the question of opium derivatives, also internal consumption of crude opium, licit and illicit; internal manufacture and use of chandu morphia and other derivatives, licit and illicit; extent of poppy cultivation in America, possibilities of poppy cultivation, federal laws regarding importation and municipal laws governing use of opium and derivatives.
My Government therefore ventures to suggest that, for the ultimate success of the Joint Commission, it would be advantageous if each Commission could, before the joint meeting on the 1st January next at Shanghae, study the opium question as it affects its possessions in the same manner as the United States' Commission is now carrying on its investigations.
I have, &c.
(Signed) WHITELAW REID.
[1844 2-1]