[This Document is the Property of His Britannis Majesty's Government.]
[B]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL
}}
[1993]
No. 1.
[January 23.]
SECTION 3.
316
Sir,
Foreign Office to India Office.
Foreign Ofice, January 23, 1911. WITH reference to previous correspondence on the subject of the proposed Opium Conference at The Hague, I am directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to transmit to you the accompanying copy of a note from the Netherlands Minister enquiring whether His Majesty's Government still make their consent to participate conditional upon an assurance from the Governments of the Powers concerned that they are prepared to adopt severe measures with a view to prohibiting the trade in and manufacture of morphia and cocaine.*
As you are aware, the American Ambassador informed Sir E. Grey on the 4th October last that, in order to avoid unnecessary delay in the meeting of the conference, the Netherlands Government would immediately be apprised of the proposal of Flis Majesty's Government that "before the meeting of the conference there shall have first been made the necessary preliminary studies as to the trade conditions and manufacture of morphine and cocaine in the interested countries, and their preparedness to impose severe restrictions on such manufacture and trade."
A month later Mr. Whitelaw Reid wrote to this department to the effect that the Netherlands Government had notified the United States Government that they would issue a supplementary note to the Powers embodying the British proposals in regard to the two drugs in question as contained in Sir E. Grey's note to the American Embassy of the 17th September last.
There has evidently been a misunderstanding, though it is not clear whether the United States Government have failed to make a communication to the Netherlands Government in the sense of Mr. Whitelaw Reid's note of the 4th October, or whether the latter Government have not fully understood the purport of the Americau communication if made to them. In either case Sir E. Grey considers it desirable to communicate to Baron Gericke the gist of his note to the American Embassy of the 17th September, and I am accordingly to enclose a draft of the reply,† which subject to the concurrence of the Earl of Crewe, he proposes to return to the Netherlands Minister.
叠
I am, at the same time, to call your attention to the communication from the French Government to the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs, copy of which is enclosed in Baron Gericke's note, and to enquire whether it would not be well to furnish the French Government as well as the Portuguese Government, who also appear to be in doubt as to the exact requirements of His Majesty's Government in the matter, with somewhat similar information.
A copy of Baron Gericke's note will also be sent to the Board of Trade with an enquiry as to whether the investigation now on foot regarding the manufacture in and export from England of these drugs is likely to have been completed in time for the British delegates to be able to proceed at The Hague by the 1st July next, the date to which the opening of the conference now appears to have been postponed.
Sir E. Grey would be glad to be favoured with Lord Crewe's views at as early a date as may be convenient.
I am, &c.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
* Baron Gericke, January 16, 1911.
[1857 -3]
† Draft of note to Baron Gericke.