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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CO
3533
35617
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[566]
No. 1.
5 FEB 12
[January
SECTION 2.
:
Sir,
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.-(Received January 4.)
Whitehall, January 3, 1912.
I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 30th December, transmitting prints of the proposed convention and other documents drafted at the International Opium Conference, with a view to regulating the trade in opium, its derivatives, and other habit-forming drugs,
The Board observe that the proposals for regulating the trade in morphia, cocaine, &c., do not include any provision such as that suggested at the informal conference, which was held at the Foreign Office prior to the departure of the British delegates for The Hague, with regard to exports to countries not adhering to the proposed convention. Should the convention become operative, and should certain trading countries fail to adhere to it, there would apparently be no restriction on exports from the convention countries to such non-adhering countries, so that exports of morphia. cocaine, &c., which were sent to the East via such countries would be checked in the importing countries only, and the object of this portion of the proposed convention which is understood to be to check the trade in these drugs in the countries of export as well as in the countries of import, would seem to be to that extent defeated. The Board would be glad to learn the grounds on which the proposals to regulate the export to non-adhering countries as well as to those adhering to the convention failed to secure adoption by the conference.
The Board have consulted confidentially an expert adviser qualified to represent the views of British manufacturers of morphia and medicinal opinm, and are advised that whilst the trade would offer no strong opposition to the proposals of the conference as drafted, which include a provision that the restrictive regulations should not be brought into operation, at least without a further conference, unless all the countries of Europe and America give their adherence thereto, they would take strong exception to the introduction of such restrictions on their exports so long as no similar restrictions were accepted by at least the United States of America, Canada, and all the countries of Europe. In the absence of such adhesions the convention would seem likely, so far as regards morphia and cocaine, not only to place British manufacturers and traders in an unfair position of inequality, but, for the reasons above outlined, to render the whole convention ineffectual. The Board's adviser has further pointed out that whilst the definitions of raw, prepared, and medicinal opium, which were forwarded with your letter of the 15th December were as stated in the Board's letter of the 21st December in accordance with the ordinary usages of British manufacturers, the definition of raw opiun contained in print (A) forwarded with your letter under reply does not contain the important clause "Raw opium includes powdered opium and granulated opium as known to the trade." He is of opinion that it should be clearly understood that opium simply powdered or granulated should be regarded as raw opium and governed by the regulations appropriate thereto, and that the special restrictions applicable to medicinal opium should not be enforced in regard to such products.
I am to add that the Board are communicating to the Commissioners of His Majesty's Customs and Excise copies of the priuts enclosed in your letter and of this reply, and will cause you to be informed at an early date of any observations that the Commissioners may have to offer on the subject.
I have, &c.
GEO. J. STANLEY.
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