C. O.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
202
CHINA. TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[27558]
No. 1.
14 NOV 08
[October 31.]
SECTION 2.
Your Excellency,
Sir Edward Grey to M. Cambon.
Foreign Office, October 31, 1908.
I REGRET to inform your Excellency that owing to inadvertence the further reply promised in my note of the 24th May last, in regard to the proposed Anti-Opium Commission, was not furnished to your Excellency at the proper time.
A reply has been returned to the proposals of the United States' Government as to the constitution, scope, procedure, and time and place of the meeting of the Commission to the following effect:
His Majesty's Government accept with pleasure the proposal of the United States' Government that the Joint Commission should meet at Shanghae on the 1st January next.
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 was 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.
In the opinion of His Majesty's Government a Commission sitting at Shanghae would be well suited 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. It is therefore suggested 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 the note communicated by the United States' Government would perhaps be reconsidered by them. 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 Great Britain 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.
In conclusion, the United States' Government were requested to communicate in due course their final wishes as to the scope of the Joint Commission and the procedure to be followed by it.
I have, &c.
(Signed) E. GREY,
[1980 hh-2]
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