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(This Document is the rroperty of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
653
[November 21.]
SECTION 1.
[40732]
No. 1.
Mr. Whitelaw Reid to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received November 21.)
THE American Ambassador presents his compliments to Sir Edward Grey, and, in acknowledgment of his note of the 18th instant relating to the subject of the International Opium Commission, regrets to observe that apparently there has been some misunderstanding on the part of His Majesty's Government with reference to Mr. Reid's note of the 12th instant.
The proposal embodied in the note last mentioned is intended by the American Government to be an addition to, rather than a substitute for, clause 3 of the draft instructions suggested in Mr. Reid's note of the 8th May last, nor is it intended that any clause mentioned therein should be superseded.
In order to avoid any further doubt with respect to this matter, Mr. Reid has the honour to inform Sir Edward Grey that the American Opium Commissioners have been instructed as follows:-
"1. To devise means to limit the use of opium in the possessions of this country. "2. To ascertain the best means of suppressing opium traffic, if such now exists, among the nationals of this Government in the Far East.
3. To be in a position so that when the Commission meets at Shanghae our Representatives may be prepared to co-operate with the Representatives of participating Powers, and with them to offer definite suggestions of measures which these Govern- ments may adopt for the gradual suppression of opium cultivation, traffic, and use within their Eastern possessions, thus assisting China in her purpose of eradicating the evil from her Empire.
"4. To be able to inform the whole Commission when it assembles regarding regulations and restrictions in force at present in this country, and to formulate and discuss proposals for amending such regulations in points in which they may be found, in the course of the joint investigation, to affect the production, commerce, use, and disadvantages of opium in the Far East."
American Embassy, London, November 21, 1908.
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