[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
со
36748
[November 15.]
REC
REGE I DEC IC
SECTION 1.
[41634]
Sir,
No. 1.
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.- (Received November 15.)
Board of Trade, November 14, 1910.
1 AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd November relative to the enquiries which His Majesty's Government have undertaken to set on foot with regard to the trade in morphia and cocaine in this country.
In reply, I am to state that the Board have made arrangements under which they are being furnished by the commissioners of customs and excise with particulars respecting any shipments leaving this country, which are actually described by the exporters on their customs declarations as consisting of the products in question. As, however, exporters are not at present under any obligation to declare these articles specifically to the customs officers, the information so obtained has proved incomplete and unsatisfactory.
It is accordingly proposed to introduce a requirement that declarations shall be made with regard to the quantities and value of all imports into and exports from this
or "cocaine and its salts." country, consisting of either "morphine and its saits
3:
It will not be possible, however, to bring the new requirement into operation before the 1st January next, and several months must necessarily elapse before the statistics based on these declarations can be considered representative of the ordinary course of trade. Until reliable information is available with regard to the imports and exports referred to, and consequently as to the names of the importers and exporters, the Board do not think that it would be advisable to institute enquiries as to the extent of the manufacture of the articles in question in this country.
I am, &c.
GEO. J. STANLEY.
[2980 μ-1]
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