CO129-353 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 667

My Lord,

Inclosure 2 in No. 1.

The Earl of Crewe to Governor-General the Earl of Dudley.

Downing Street, December 4, 1908.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's telegram of the 15th October, notifying that the Commonwealth Government do not propose to send a Delegate to the International Opium Commission, and stating that a report on the measures already taken towards the prohibition of opium importation into Australia will be forwarded shortly.

2. With reference to the suggestion of your Government that the International Conference should be invited to consider the question of making the right of the cultivation and manufacture of opium a Government monopoly in each country, I shall be glad if you will inform your Ministers that, in the opinion of His Majesty's Govern- ment, this question could not properly be included within the scope of the reference to the Commission as defined by the Government of the United States.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

CREWE.

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

663

[December 12.]

SECTION 1,

[43386]

No. 1.

India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received December 12.)

India Office, December 11, 1908.

Sir,

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 1st instant, on the subject of the International Opium Conference at Shanghae, and in reply to say that Viscount Morley concurs in the terms of the instructions proposed to be given to the British Delegates.

I am, however, to suggest that on the 10th page the words "the British Government in India" should be substituted for "the Indian Government," and that on the 11th and 12th pages the words " and the Government of India" should be omitted where they occur.

am, &c. (Signed) A. GODLEY.

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