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framed for the strict prohibition of the consumption and cultivation of opium in China, and commanding that all the evils arising from foreign and native opium were to be completely eradicated within a period of ten years.
Soon after this the American Government informed His Majesty's Government that they were much concerned with regard to the question of opium, which had been raised in connection with the Philippines and they enquired what view His Majesty's Government would take of a Joint Commission on, or a Joint Investigation of the Opium Trade and the Opium Habit in the Far East to be undertaken by certain countries.
On enquiring what exactly was meant by an investigation of the Opium trade and Opium habit, the United States Government stated that it was desired to come to a decision as to whether the consequences of the opium trade