R
676
The United States, hopever, is not itself an opium-
ucing country,
in order to make its laws fully ef-
tive and stamp out the evil there should be control of
amount of opium suipped to this country.
To this end
...
will be necessary to secure international co-operation
ad the sympathy of opium-producing countries.
In the original despatches which led to the calling
of the Commission, the American Government considered the
time had come to decide whether the consequences of the
opium trade and habit were not such that the civilized
Powers should take measures in common to control the trade
and eradicate the habit, and the suggestion was made that
there be an international conference to consider the ques-
tion in its international bearing, and if feasible to draft
international agreement.
As, novever, the Government of Great Britain intimated
that procedure by way of commission seeged better adapted
han a conference for an investigation of the facts of the
trade and the consequences of the habit preliminary to an
action by the Powers jointly and severally, and inasmuch af the material placed before the conference might be insuffic-
ient to arrive at definite recommendations, the United.
States