This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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40533
No. 1.
[November 29.7
SECTION 1.
Sir Edward Grey to British Delegates on the International Opium Conference.
(Confidential.) Gentlemen,
Foreign Office, November 29, 1911. YOU have already been informed that His Majesty's Government have selected you to be the British delegates at the conference which is to meet at The Hague on the 1st December to conventionalise the resolutions of the Shanghai Opium Commission and to discuss the question of restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia and cocaine.
In September 1909 the United States Government invited the Governments which were represented on the Shanghai International Opium Commission to send delegates, furnished with full powers, to an international conference to negotiate and conclude an agreement conventionalising the resolutions adopted at Shanghai so that they might be given international effect.
A tentative programme was at the same time submitted by the Government of the United States professedly based upon the resolutions and proceedings of the inter- national commission, which it was thought might properly serve as the basis at least for preliminary discussion.
This programme and the nine resolutions adopted by the Shanghai Commission will be found in the enclosure in the uote from the United States chargé d'affaires of the 23rd September, 1909, a copy of which I annex for convenience of reference.*
As it was necessary to consult not only the several departments of His Majesty's Government interested, but also the Government of India, as to the desirability or otherwise of taking part in a conference of the nature indicated, some considerable time had to elapse before it was possible to reply to the invitation of the United States Government.
His Majesty's Government, though fully sharing the opinion of the Indian Government that a conference for the purpose of conventionalising the resolutions of the Shanghai Commission would be premature, and that the more extended programme which the Government of the United States had suggested as a basis for discussion contained matter which went beyond and was inconsistent with the recommendations of the Shanghai Commission and involved the discussion of subjects to which strong objection must be taken, nevertheless consented to take part in the proposed conference, subject to certain conditions and reservations.
His Majesty's Government, in replying to the invitation of the United States Government, laid it down as a condition of their participation that the conference should thoroughly and completely deal with the question of restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia and cocaine. This, indeed, is a subject to which His Majesty's Government attach especial importance, in view of the spread of the morphia and cocaine habit in India, in China, and in other Eastern countries. Indian and Chinese experience shows that legislation against the importation of morphia and cocaine must fail to be thoroughly effective owing to the ease with which it can be evaded in practice, and consequently suggests the desirability of co-operation on the part of the home and foreign Governments in the shape of control over manufacture and distribution. You will therefore use your best efforts to secure the assistance of the Governments represented at the conference towards obtaining this end.
His Majesty's Government, while expressing their desire, equally with the Govern- ment of the United States, that effect should be given to the resolutions of the Shanghai Commission, and declaring that, as regards the subjects for discussion other than morphia and cocaine, they should, in their opinion, be those indicated in the recom- mendations of that commission, felt bound to take exception to the following items of the American tentative programme :----
(h.) The propriety of restudying treaty obligations and international agreements under which the opium traffic is at present conducted.
"China Trade" print, 1909, September 24, Section 1.
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