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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
G32383
RESP 152 4 5 08 [July 23.]
SECTION 2.
consultation with their expert advisers, that the attainment of these objects would be facilitated were the proposed scope and procedure amended in certain respects.
In proposing a Commission the American Government, it is understood, had in view the investigation of the opium trade and the opium habit in the Far East, with the object of arriving at a decision as to whether the consequences were not such that civilized Powers should do what they could to put a stop to it.
A preliminary investigation of the facts by means of a Commission, before the subject of restrictive and repressive measures could be profitably considered, was also pronounced to be necessary by the French Foreign Office in their note of the 3rd July, 1907, which you were good enough to communicate to me on the 30th October last.
In the opinion of His Majesty's Government a Commission sitting at Shanghae would be well placed for making the detailed inquiry, advocated in that note, into "the production, commerce, use, and disadvantages of opium" in the Far East, and its findings on the facts would be in the highest degree valuable and important. I therefore venture to suggest that this aspect of the Commission's duties should be brought out in the instructions to be framed for its guidance. The findings of the Commission on the facts would naturally govern the nature of its recommendations.
His Majesty's Government consider that its labours would be expedited if the Representatives of the several Governments were first to acquaint themselves fully with the opium question as it presents itself in their respective countries, and were thus in a position to inform the Commission when it assembles as to the regulations and restrictions there in force, and to formulate and discuss proposals for amending them in points in which they may be found in the course of the joint inquiry to affect the opium trade and the opium habit in the Far East. If this view of the procedure to be followed commends itself to the American Government and to the other Powers, the instructions outlined in your Excellency's note of the 8th May will perhaps be reconsidered. As these instructions at present are worded, they would require the Delegates of the several Governments to undertake a more responsible and extensive investigation than time permits, and to make proposals for altering the administrative regulations of their respective countries before the Commission had entered upon inquiry or had ascertained the precise nature of the remedies which the present circumstances of the opium trade and the opium habit in the Far East may require.
As regards India and the other British territories concerned, the opium question has already formed the subject of investigation by Commission or of instructions from His Majesty's Government, and it is therefore unnecessary, as far as this country is concerned, that a fresh investigation should be conducted for the investigation of facts which are already well known. The British Representatives would be ready to meet the other Commissioners when the latter had concluded their inquiries, and to place the result at their disposal.
I shall be grateful if your Excellency will submit these suggestions to the consideration of the American Government, and will communicate to me in due course their final wishes as to the scope of the Joint Commission and the procedure to be followed by it.
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL
[25581]
No. 1.
Mr. Whitelaw Reid to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 23.)
Sir,
American Embassy, London, July 22, 1908.
WITH reference to my note of the 8th May last and to subsequent correspondence relating to the subject of the opium trade in China, I have the honour to state that my Government would be gratified to learn whether the time and place of the meeting of the Opium Commission named by my Government would be agreeable to His Majesty's Government.
In this connection I should be much obliged, in order that I may announce them to my Government, if you would be so good as to furnish me with the names and rank of the Commissioners whom you propose to appoint, and would inform me what action, if any, you will take before the general meeting in Shanghae, particularly with reference to the scope and method of treatment of the investigation, and whether it would be similar to that outlined in my note of the 12th instant.
I have, &c.
[1844-2]
(Signed)
WHITELAW REID,
Foreign Office, August
1908.
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