[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
C.O.
27449
REO
Rea? 28 JUL 14
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL
[June 20.]
SECTION 2.
[27870]
No. 1.
British Delegates to Opium Conference to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 20.)
(No. 1.) Sir,
The Hague, June 19, 1914. AS we have already informed you in our telegrams, certain of the Powers signatories of the Opium Convention of 1912 have not deposited their ratifications, nor are they able to give any assurance that they will be able to do so by a given date. A considerable number of these Powers are prevented from fixing a date for ratification merely owing to a provision of their Constitution that ratification is subject to the sanction of their legislatures, and their delegates cannot pledge their legislatures to take the necessary steps by a fixed date. Other countries are unable to ratify for other reasons. For instance, the German delegate explained that Germany could not ratify at present owing to the abstention of such countries as Austria-Hungary and Turkey and the reserve appended to her signature by Sweden. The French delegate declares that France is prepared to ratify if Cochin-China and the French possessions in India are excluded for the time being from the scope of the convention.
For the moment, then, the general putting into force of the treaty by every one of the signatory Powers is out of the question, and the delegates are occupied in seeking some other means of marking further progress.
A proposal is being considered according to which those Powers which have actually ratified the convention should proceed to put it into force among themselves, while other Powers, whose ratification is merely delayed by reasons of a constitutional nature, may join them as soon as their ratifications are deposited. It must be clearly understood that this only applies to the putting into force of the convention, and not of the legislative measures contemplated by the convention; in fact, it is proposed to insert a proviso that the undertaking to introduce legislation as laid down in article 24 must not be obligatory on the Powers thus agreeing to put the convention in force until six months after the deposit of ratifications by the last of the Powers whose co-operation is deemed essential to make the convention effective.
The aim of His Majesty's Government is to secure as soon as possible the effective putting into force of the legislation contemplated by the convention, and we cannot help feeling that the mere agreement to put into force the convention, not the legisla tion, on the part of a group of Powers only might give the appearance of progress without the reality and might tend merely to shift the area of the trade in these noxious drugs without securing that restriction of their output to legitimate and medical purposes only by general international arrangement, such as was contemplated by those who took part in the original draftig of the convention.
On the other hand, we do not wish as a delegation to oppose any step in advance which obtains the support of a large number, perhaps even a majority, of the delegates, and under these circumstances we have the honour to request your instructions in regard to the attitude which we should adopt towards this proposal. This we feel impelled to do owing to the specific statement in our instructions, "that the Conference will have to consider whether the co-operation of all the signatory Powers is really essential."
[2183 u-
-2]
We have, &c.
W. G. MAX MÜLLER. W. J. COLLINS.
126