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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[172112]
No. 1.
C
399
63188
PEC
REG 270EC17
[September 6.
SECTION 1,
(No. 85.) Sir,
Mr. Balfour to Mr. Alston.
Foreign Office, September 6, 1917. WITH reference to your despatch No. 172 of the 9th June last and your telegram No. 339 of the 26th July last regarding the export of cocaine and morphia from the United Kingdom to China, I transmit you herewith statements of the quantities of these drugs exported and re-exported from the United Kingdom to China and Japan, from which you will see that no cocaine or morphia is being sent at present from the United Kingdom to China direct. It seems, therefore, unnecessary to adopt any further measure regarding the export of these drugs from the United Kingdom to China, since, as a matter of fact, that export has ceased.
With regard to the exports from the United Kingdom to Japan, His Majesty's Ambassador at Tokyo, in his note of the 9th July to which you refer in your telegram No. 339, unfortunately omitted to inform the Japanese Government that His Majesty's Government propose to restrict licences to export cocaine as well as morphia. He has now been instructed to do so, but some time must necessarily elapse before an answer can be received from the Japanese Government, and, in the meantime, it has been considered advisable to license the export of both drugs to Japan in the same way as hitherto that is, licences to export have not been refused, unless such refusal could be based on the requirements of this country,
I am, &c.
A. J. BALFOUR,
• Not printed.
[2729 ƒ-1]