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mwise agitation, as well as by the necessity of maintaining the entire question upon the basis of fact, as determined by the Shanghai Commnission, suggested the following tentative programme :---
(a) The advisability of uniform national laws and regulations to control the production, manufacture, and distribution of opium, its derivatives and preparations;
(b.) The advisability of restricting the number of ports through which opium may be shipped by opium-producing countries;
(c.) The means to be taken to prevent at the port of departure the shipment of opium, its derivatives and preparations, to countries that prohibit or wish to prohibit or control their entry;
(d) The advisability of reciprocal notification of the amount of opium, its derivatives and preparations, shipped from one country to another;
(e.) Regulation by the Universal Postal Union of the transmission of opium, derivatives, and preparations, through the mails;
(f) The restriction or control of the cultivation of the poppy so that the production of opium will not be undertaken by countries which at present do not produce it, to compensate for the reduction being made in British India and China;
(y) The application of the pharmacy laws of the Governments concerned to their subjects in the consular districts, concessions, and settlements in China;
(h.) The propriety of restudying treaty obligations and international agreements under which the opium traffic is at present conducted;
(.) The advisability of uniform provisions of penal laws concerning offences against any agreements that the Powers may make in regard to opium production and traffic;
(1) The advisability of uniform marks of identification of packages containing opium in international transit;
(k.) The advisability of permits to be granted to exporters of opium, its derivatives and preparations;
(1). The advisability of reciprocal right of search of vessels suspected of carrying contraband opium;
(m.) The advisability of measures to prevent the unlawful use of a flag by vessels engaged in the opium traffic;
(n.) The advisability of an international commission to be entrusted with the carrying out of any international agreement concluded.
It was made plain, however, that the United States had no desire to prescribe the scope of the conference or to present a programme which might not be varied nor enlarged; but that the tentative programme was submitted in the belief that it might serve as a basis at least for preliminary discussion, and a formal expression of opinion was invited on the topics outlined, and an enumeration requested of the other aspects of the opium problem which might seen of peenliar importance to any participating nation.
This circular proposal was made to those Governments which were represented in the International Opium Commission and to the Turkish Government, which, although invited to participate in the International Opium Commission, failed to do so because it had no diplomatic representative in the Far East.
The proposal for an International Opium Conference has been accepted by all the Governments to which it was made, except those of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.
The Government of the Netherlands very courteously suggested that the con- ference meet at The Hague. This has proved to be agreeable to all of the Powers, and the question of the date of the conference having been left to the Netherlands Government, that Government has finally found that the 1st December next is accept- able, and invitations naming that date have been accordingly issued to the assenting Governments.
With regard to the tentative programme laid down in the Government's circular proposal, the following reservations, additional proposals and suggestions have been made by certain of the participating Powers:--
The French Government making no objection to items (b), (c), (d), (e), (ƒ), (j), and (k) has remarked as to items (a), (g), (i), (1), (m), and (n) of the tentative programme, that item (a) demands the adoption of uniform national laws and regulations to control
* Subsequently corrected to read: effective national laws and regulations.
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the production, manufacture, and distribution of opium, its derivatives and preparations, and expresses the view that they do not believe that it is desirable that this question should be brought up.
In regard to this item it has been explained to the French and British Governments that a mistake was made by this Government in using the words "uniform national laws"; that they should have been "effective national laws"; that item (7) proposes the application of the pharmacy laws of the Governments concerned to their subjects in the consular districts, concessions, and settlements in China, and expresses the view that at present it would seem to be impossible to accomplish this purpose, as it would tend to place in the hands of the Chinese or nationals of countries not signatories to a convention, the exercise of the profession of pharmacy in the concessions; that item (i), as to the establishment of uniform provisions of penal laws concerning offences against any agreement that the Powers may make in regard to opium pro- duction, would mean a modification of French penal laws, and that this is such a grave question that the Government of the Republic is not prepared to bring it up in the French Parliament. As to items (7) and (m), which raise the question of the right of search, and about which public opinion in France has always shown itself particularly susceptible, the French Government would not renounce its principles in this matter to prevent contraband opium. The French Government also reserves its opinion in regard to item (n), which involves the question of an international commission to supervise any international agreement concluded by the conference. Within the limits thus indicated the French Government has declared its readiness to study proper measures to bring about the gradual suppression of the unnecessary production and misuse of opium.
The German Government agreeing to the general principles of the tentative programme, in particular consented that the morphine and cocaine questions be made the subject matter of deliberations of the conference.
The British Government, after pointing out that the illicit traffic in morphine and cocaine in India, China, and other Far Eastern countries is becoming more grievous and deadly than opium smoking, and that such an evil is certain to increase, as the restrictions which are now being placed in India and China on the production and use of opium become more stringent, suggested that the Powers participating in the conférence should definitely consider beforehand the question whether they would be prepared to make a statistical study of the manufacture and trade in morphine and cocaine and agree to impose severe restrictions on such manufacture of, and trade in the drugs in their respective territories. Further, the British Government has stated that they take exception to those items of the tentative programme numbered (h), (l), (m), and (2); and that they will not be prepared to discuss in the conference :-`
1. The arrangement made between His Majesty's Government and China respecting the progressive restriction of opium imports and of opium production in China (ie., the so-called ten-year agreement);"
2. Other existing treaties between the two countries.
It may be stated that all of the participating Governments have accepted the proposals of the British Government in regard to morphine and cocaine.
The Chinese Government has suggested in regard to item (a) of the tentative programme that, in drawing up laws and regulations there should be no interference with the sovereign rights of any nation; that, in regard to item (i) that offences against any agreement that the Powers might make should be punished by each country according to its own penal laws; that, in regard to item (1) that the right of search of vessels should be restricted by the Governments concerned to vessels found within their own territorial waters; and in regard to item (n) that there would be no need of an international commission to supervise any agreement reached by the conference and assented to by the interested Governments.
The Italian Government has pointed out the importance of the question of the traffic in Indian hemp drugs to that Government, and has suggested that the conference might advantageously deal with the question of this traffic.
The Netherlands Government, while agreeing to the general principles of the ten- tative programme, at the same time observed that for the Netherlands Indies where the culture of the poppy does not exist, and where the opium Régie is, or will be introduced, the question of most importance to the Netherlands Government is for the conference to arrive at an agreement as to measures to be taken to combat the smuggling of opium.
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