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suggest that Great Britain should ask the League of Nations to send out to the Far East a Commission to examine the problem on the spot, and to visit not only British Territories but also those of Indo-China and Macao, and other places where opium was smoked. The Commission should be composed, not of persons who had already been concerned in the opium controversy, but of, say, an unprejudiced American and a Frenchman
Sir Malcolm Delevingne did not think the appointment of such If the Commission
a Commission was a way out of the difficulty. was not composed of experts, it would find it extremely hard to go behind what it was told by the various Governments and, in any case, it could hardly add to the mass of information which had been accumulated upon the subject. The difficulty was not to ascertain the facts which were already wellknow but to form a Judgment upon them.
Sir Gilbert Grindle, however, considered that the appointment of the suggested Commission would be a very good thing, as it would clear the air and would be able to form an unbiassed opinion as to whether Hong Kong had really gone as far as possible. It should visit the Philippines as well as the other Far Eastern possessions. ▲ Frenchman's opinion on the Philippines would be as interesting as an American's opinion on Indo-China.
Er. Newton considered that the Commission had its good points as it might secure uniformity of method and, from the point of view of propaganda (in which the Foreign Office were interested) it might serve a very useful purpose in revealing the sincerity of the efforts which were being made to deal with the opium problem in British territories in the Far East as compared with what was being done by other countries. He would suggest that the League of Nations be asked to appoint such a Commission, but that any steps for carrying out Part 2 of the Convention which might be taken as a result of the International Conference should not be held up whilst the Commission was reporting, and that
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