This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
467
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[27558]
No. 1.
4. 35. 09
[August 19.]
SECTION 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Whitelaw Reid,
Your Excellency,
Foreign Office, August 19, 1908,
WITH reference to your Excellency's notes of the 8th May and 12th June last communicating to me the suggestions of the United States' Government as to the constitution, scope, procedure, and time and place of meeting of the proposed Opium Commission, I have the honour to state that His Majesty's Government accept with pleasure the proposal that the Joint Commission shall meet at Shanghae on the 1st January next and that they propose to nominate three British Delegates.
The names of the Delegates will be communicated to your Excellency as soon as they have been selected.
While His Majesty's Government have every desire to further the general objects which the United States' Government have in view, they cannot but think, after 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 its 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.
[1904 -1]
I have, &c.
(Signed)
E. GREY.