2
Enclosure in No. 1.
Items of Discussion.
Chapter I--Raw Opium.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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2018
REG 20 JAN 121
[December 18.]
SECTION 1.
(a.) Effective national laws and regulations to control the production and distri- bution of raw opium.
(b.) Restriction of the number of places through which raw opium may be exported or imported.
(c.) Measures to be adopted to prevent at the places of departure the export of raw opium to countries that prohibit or control, or desire to prohibit or control, its entry.
(d.) Reciprocal notification of every consignment of raw opium exported from one country to another.
(e) The adoption of uniform marks of identification of packages containing raw opium in international transit.
(f.) The issue of authorisations to importers and exporters of raw opium. (g) Regulation by the Universal Postal Union of the transmission of raw opium through the post.
Raw Opium.
Raw opium is the spontaneously coagulated juice obtained from the capsules of the papaver somniferum, and which has only been submitted to the necessary manipu- lations for packing and transport.
Raw opium includes powdered opium and granulated opium as known to the trade.
Prepared Opium.
Prepared opium is the product of raw opium obtained by a series of special operations, especially by beating, boiling, and fermentation, having for their object its transformation into an extract suitable for consumption. Prepared opium shall include dross and any other residues remaining when opium has been smoked.
Medicinal Opium.
Medicinal opium is raw opium which has been heated to 60 degrees centigrade, powdered or granulated, mixed, if necessary, with indifferent materials, and containing not less than 10 per cent. of morphia.
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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No. 1.
Foreign Office to Board of Trade.
Foreign Office, December 18, 1911. Sir,
WITH reference to my letter of the 15th instant, on the subject of the Opium Conference, I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to state, for the information of the Board of Trade, that Mr. Max Müller, writing on behalf of the British delegates, has called attention to the fact that the expression "prepared opium," as defined by the conference, is intended to refer simply to opium prepared for consumption by smoking or eating, and not to opium dried or powdered for the manufacture of morphia.
It appears that all of the States represented at the conference, with the exception of Portugal, who is unwilling to make any concession likely to injure the trade of Macao, have agreed to the proposed resolution, prohibiting the importation and exportation of prepared opium, and it would be regrettable if His Majesty's Govern- ment were obliged to associate themselves with Portugal alone in this respect.
As it is anticipated that it may be possible to terminate the labours of the conference at the end of this week, Sir E. Grey would be glad to be placed in a position to send telegraphic instructions to the delegates in regard to the proposed resolution at an early date.
I am,
&c.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
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