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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C
[7603]
No. 1.
[February 24.]
SECTION 1.
Sir,
Foreign Office to Privy Council Office.*
Foreign Ofice, February 24, 1914.
I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to inform you that the first meeting of the Interdepartmental Committee for considering measures to give effect to the International Opium Convention will be held at this office on Tuesday, the 3rd March, at 11.30 A.M.
I am to express the hope that it will be convenient for a representative of your Department to attend at that hour, and I am to transmit for his perusal copy of a memorandum on the subject which has been prepared by the Board of Trade.
Mr. F. D. Acland, M.P., will preside over the Committee.
I am, &c.
W. LANGLEY.
178
Enclosure in No. 1.
Note on the Legislation required to give effect to the Opium Convention in the United Kingdom.
THE proposals which were drawn up at an Interdepartmental Committee, at which the Board of Trade assisted, for regulating international trade in morphia and cocaine, were framed to indicate the general lines on which it appeared possible that His Majesty's Government would be in a position to legislate. These proposals, which were submitted by the British delegates to the International Opium Conference, formed the basis of the provisions ultimately incorporated in the convention, so far as concerns these products.
We have not, at the Board of Trade, had occasion to consider what should be the provisions of law with regard to the trade in raw opium or in opium prepared for smoking, but some suggestion will be put forward later for carrying out the require- ments of the convention, so far as these products are concerned.
The original proposals with regard to morphia and cocaine were as follows:-
1. All manufacturers of and dealers in morphia and cocaine shall be required to take out a licence. Persons manufacturing or dealing in the above articles without licence shall be liable to penalty.
2. All such manufacturers and dealers will be required to keep a record of all transactions in such drugs, including the name and address of all persons from whom they obtain or to whom they sell them, and the quantity involved in each transaction. This record shall be open to inspection and verification by a Government officer.
3. It is advisable to prohibit the sale of these drugs except to persons authorised
to purchase the same by licence or otherwise.
4. The customs shall be empowered to detain imported consignments, except in transit, of the above drugs until satisfied that the consignee is a licensed manufacturer or dealer, or a person duly authorised to receive the drugs.
5. Exportation to foreign countries, whether adhering to the convention or not, and to other portions of the British Empire, to be permitted only upon production to the customs authorities of a certificate from the country of destination that the consignee is authorised to import the drugs either in accordance with the stipulations of the convention or with local laws or regulations which, in the opinion of the customs authorities, are equally stringent.
The only one of these provisions which requires substantial amendment is the fiftli, as it has been agreed that the parties to the convention could not properly restrict the export to countries which did not adhere thereto. So far as foreign countries are * Also to Home Office, India Office, Colonial Office, Board of Customs, Board of Trade, mutatie mutandia.
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