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contracting Powers, except when consigned to persons furnished with the licences or permits provided for by the laws or. regulations of the importing country.
With this object each Government may communicate from time to time to the Governments of the exporting countries lists of the persons to whom licences or permits for the import of morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts have been granted.
The fulfilment of this Article requires the co-operation of importing countries, and the Government of India have expressed their readiness to prohibit the export of morphine and cocaine unless the consigament to be exported is covered by an import certificate granted by the Government of the importing country, to the effect that the drug is required solely for medicinal or scientific purposes. In fact, no cocaine has ever been exported from India, and morphia has only been exported in small quantities in the form of by-products obtained from waste materials at the Government factory.
Article 14.
The contracting Powers shall apply the laws and regulations respecting the manufacture, import, sale, or erport of morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts—
(a) to medicinal opium;
(b) to all preparations (medicinal and non-medicinal,
including the so-called anti-opium remedies) containing more than 0.2 per cent. of morphine, or more than 0.1 per cent, of cocaine;
(c) to heroin, its salts and preparations containing more
than 0.1 per cent, af heroin;
(d) to all new derivatives of morphine, of cocaine, or of their respective salts, and to every other alkaloid of opium, which may be shown by scientific research, generally recognised, to be liable to similar abuse and productire of like ill-effects,
manu-
Medicinal opium in the past was subject to the same regulations as raw opium, but on the coming into force of the Convention the Government of India drew the attention of Local Governinents to the question of amending the definition of morphine drugs contained in their rules so as to include medicinal opium. In fact, medicinal opium is not factured in India. Similarly, steps were taken at the same time to examine the lists of preparations exclude from the operation of the rules on the ground of the negligible amounts of morphine or cocaine entering into their composition, in order to comply strictly with the requirements of this article. Heroin is subject to the rules applicable to morphine drugs.
Articles 15 to 19 of the Convention are concerned with China and the Treaty Powers, and relate principally to smuggling into and out of China, and to the leased territories.
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Article 20 suggests that the contracting powers should examine the possibility of making it a penal offence to be in illegal possession of any of the substances dealt with by the Con- vention, and Article 21 provides that they shall communicate to one another, through the Netherlands Government for which the Secretariat of the League of Nations has now been generally substituted by arrangement) texts of their laws and regulations and statistical information concerning trade. Both these Articles have been complied with by the Government of India. The remaining Articles relate to details of signature and ratification.
It will be observed that a thorough and honest application of the Articles of this Convention would fully secure the objects which the Convention was designed to attain. As regards the morphia and cocaine habits, a far greater danger than opium smoking has ever been, Chapter III., if rigidly interpreted by all the contracting Powers, provides a complete remedy. India cannot be held responsible for the failure of other l'owers to control the traffic in their own territories, and the suggestion that the export of opium from India is the fountain of evil that drowns all attempts to eliminate these pernicious habits is merely a confession that some of the contracting Powers are not fulfilling their obligations. It cannot be denied that India bas completely carried out her part of the bargain. Her production of opium is small compared with that of China, and she is only one of several exporters of raw opium. The bulk of her exports go direct to responsible Governments, who are in a position to gauge the requirements of their countries and to prevent re-exports, and the remainder goes to countries whose Gloveruments are alt signatories of the Convention. She is prepared to co-operate to the fullest possible extent in assisting those Governments to enforce any restrictions they may desire. If they desire to prohibit the import of opinn no opium will be sent. If they desire to restrict imports to medicinal needs the Government of India will control export accordingly. There is no case whatever behind the attack on Indian opiunt. It expresses merely impatience at the slowness witli which international action is rendered effective; but though it is possible to sympathise with this attitude, it appears illogical that the Government of India should be attacked by active spirits in the United States of America, because they see or think they see their country drenched with morphia manufactured from Turkish opium. The curse will not be lifted until Turkey has signed the Hague Convention, ratified it and put it into force until Persia has adhered to Article 3 (a), which regulates the export of raw opium; until production has been effectively controlled in China, and until Governments have realised that they must shoulder their own burdens and attack the vice at home, as the Government of India have done.
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