[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] (
[B]
OPIUM,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[33412]
No. 1.
29814
106
REC [Septembe1738 SEP 10)
SECTION 1.
!
Your Excellency,
Sir Educard Grey to Mr. Whitelaw Reid.
Foreign Office, September 17, 1910. I HAVE the honour to inform your Excellency that I am now in a position to reply to the invitation of the United States Government contained in your note of the 23rd September last as to the representation of this country in the International Opium Conference which it is proposed should be held at The Hague for the purpose of conventionalising the resolutions of the Shanghai Commission.
His Majesty's Government desire equally with the Government of the United States that effect should be given to the resolutions of the Shanghai Commission, and I have the honour to inform your Excellency that they will be ready, if satisfactory assurances can be given to them on certain points, to take part at the proper time in a conference for the furtherance of this object, although, in view of the contents of the resolutions, it is doubtful whether there is much scope for international action, and whether the ground for fruitful discussion has as yet been cleared by the completion in each country of the detailed enquiries and measures of reform which the commission recommended. In particular, His Majesty's Government desire to be assured that if they participate in a conference, the other participating Powers are willing that the conference should thoroughly and completely deal with the question of restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia, which forms the subject of the fifth resolution of the Shanghai Commission, and also with the allied question of cocaine. In India, in China, and in other Eastern countries the importation of morphia and cocaine from occidental countries, and the spread of morphia and the cocaine habit, is becoming an evil more serious and more deadly thau opium smoking, and this evil is certain to increase as the restrictions which are now placed in India and in China on the production and use of opium become more stringent. Indian and Chinese experience shows that the morphia and the cocaine evil cannot be efficiently controlled except at the source in the stages of manufacture and of distribution in the manufacturing countries.
If recommendation 5 of the Shanghai Commission is to be treated effectively in this sense in the proposed international conference, it will be necessary that the participating Powers should have definitely considered beforehand the question whether they are prepared to impose sovere restrictions on the manufacture of and trade in morphia and cocaine in their respective countries. His Majesty's Government suggest that the United States Government should ascertain from the several Powers whether, if a conference is held, they are prepared to discuss in it the morphia and cocaine question from this point of view, and should invite them to undertake, with a view to such discussion, the indispensable preliminary enquiries into trade conditions and to collect statistics of manufacture and export. His Majesty's Government on their part are now setting on foot the necessary enquiries in this country.
It may be desirable to ascertain from the several Powers, should they agree to undertake similar investigations in their respective countries, what length of time will be required for the purpose, as information on this point will indicate approximately the date when the conference may be usefully held.
Until satisfactory assurances in this respect are obtained from the Powers and the preliminary enquiries have been completed, His Majesty's Government consider that the convening of a conference would be premature. As regards the subjects for discussion other than morphia and cocaine, in the event of a conference being convened, His Majesty's Government consider that they should be those indicated in the recommendations of the Shanghai Commission, and they must take exception to the items numbered (h), (1), (m), and (n) of the tentative programme proposed in the circular letter of the United States Government. These they are not prepared to
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