THIRD REVISE FOR PARLIAMENT,"
November 1912.
264
C.O.
36062
RECE
REG15 NOV 12
Sir,
British Delegates to the International Opium Conference to Sir Edward Grey.
WE, the British delegates at the International Opium Conference at The Hague, have the honour to submit to you our report on the proceedings and results of the conference. We have already transmitted to you (on the 24th January) the convention and the final protocol in which the labours of the conference resulted, and we now submit two volumes containing respectively (a) minutes of the conference sessions, and (b) memoranda or other papers laid before the conference by the various delegations. We also annex an unofficial English summary of the minutes.†
2. The conference was called together at the instance of the United States Govern. ment, whose object was to give the force of law and international agreement to the proposals contained in the resolutions of the International Opium Commission which assembled at Shanghai in 1899, and to "the essential corollaries derived therefrom." That Government accordingly put forward the following tentative programme for discussion by the conference -
(a.) The advisability of effective 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 meaus 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, its 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.
(g) 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.
(5.) The advisability of uniform provisions of penal law's concerning offences against any agreements that the Powers may make in regard to opium production and trafic.
(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.
3. The clauses given in italics had, however, been the subject of objection by other Powers. His Majesty's Government could not admit the discussion of clauses (I). (1),
* "Miscellaneous, No. 2 (1912).”
† Copies of each of these documents will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.
[665]
B 2