CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 307

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(1.) To make it clear to the European and native officials who are able to influence the consumption, that Government is in earnest to check the same;

(i.) Not to allow anybody who makes use of opium to enter upon any office in the Government Civil Service, nor in the army and navy;

(ii) To impress pupils at school and grown up people over and anon with the evils accruing from the use of opium; in short, to instruct national opinion to the purpose by every suitable means, in order to develop this anti-opium tendency, the aid should be called in of private societies intending to promote the moral concerns of special sections of the population, and their objects and methods are found satisfactory;

(iv.) To prohibit the sale of opium to children;

(v.) To set forth publicly and to offer for sale at cost price any anti-opium medicine in case such a medicine should be spread abroad which contained neither morphia nor any other unwholesome ingredient;

(vi.) To maintain the forbidden areas-if existing in their present compass, and, if feasible, to increase them, whether or no attended with granting licences to habitual smokers;

(vii.) To exclude special sections of the population from the use of the drug; (viii) To decrease the number of places of sale and divans, and to diminish the hours during which they may remain open;

(ix.) To enhance the retail price of opium.

2. The International Opiuni Commission.

Whereas, smuggling of opium counteracts the various measures taken by the different Governments with the purpose of checking the use of opium;

The smuggling causes a great loss of revenue to the Treasury;

Moreover, it necessitates large expenses for the purpose of preventing the evil; It has a demoralising effect both on private people mixing up with that trade, and on custom-house and police officers;

Experience has taught that the smuggling of opium because of its great value in a small volume, is extremely difficult to check by the means practised up to the present time by the various Governments individually;

Therefore should be striven after the eradicating of the evil of smuggling by action of the various Governments in common accord;

Such international action is possible only after the opium business everywhere has been taken in own hands;

Be it resolved-

To recommend to the various Governments, after having established a system of direct control on opium, to enter into diplomatic deliberations to the purpose that benceforth the wholesale trade in opium only be allowed between the Governments of opium producing and opium consuming countries, and be forbidden to any private person.

The following Resolutions were adopted on February 26, 1909, by the International Opium Commission, sitting at Shanghae.

BE it resolved:----

1. That the International Opium Commission recognizes the unswerving sincerity of the Government of China in their efforts to eradicate the production and consumption of opium throughout the Empire; the increasing body of public opinion among their own subjects by which these efforts are being supported; and the real, though unequal, progress already made in a task which is one of the greatest magnitude.

2. That in view of the action taken by the Government of China in suppressing the practice of opium-smoking, and by other Governments to the same end, the International Opium Commission recommends that each delegation concerned move its own Government to take measures for the gradual suppression of the practice of opium-smoking in its own territories and possessions, with due regard to the varying circumstances of each country concerned.

3. That the International Opium Commission finds that the use of opium in any form otherwise than for medical purposes is held by almost every participating country to be a matter for prohibition or for careful regulation; and that each country in the adminis- tration of its system of regulation, purports to be aiming, as opportunity offers, at progressively increasing stringency. In recording these conclusions the International

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Opium Commission recognizes the wide variations between the conditions prevailing in the different countries, but it would urge on the attention of the Governments concerned the desirability of a re-examination of their systems of regulation in the light of the experience of other countries dealing with the same problemi.

4. That the International Opium Commission finds that each Government repre- sented has strict laws which are aired directly or indirectly to prevent the smuggling of opium, its alkaloids, derivatives, and preparations into their respective territories; in the judgment of the International Opium Commission it is also the duty of all countries to adopt reasonable measures to prevent at ports of departure the shipment of opium, its alkaloids, derivatives, and preparations, to any country which prohibits the entry of any opium, its alkaloids, derivatives, and preparations.

5. That the International Opium Commission finds that the unrestricted manufac- ture, sale, and distribution of morphine already constitute a grave danger, and that the morphine habit shows signs of spreading: the International Opium Commission, therefore, desires to urge strongly on all Governments that it is highly important that drastic measures should be taken by each Government in its own territories and posses- sions to control the manufacture, sale, and distribution of this drug, and also of such other derivatives of opium as may appear on scientific inquiry to be liable to similar abuse and productive of like ill-effects.

6. That as the International Opium Commission is not constituted in such a manner as to permit the investigation from a scientific point of view of anti-opium remedies and of the properties and effects of opium and its products, but deems such investigation to be of the highest importance, the International Opium Commis- sion desires that each delegation shall recommend this branch of the subject to its own Government for such action as that Government may think necessary.

7. That the International Opium Commission strongly urges all Governments possessing Concessions or Settlements in China, which have not yet taken effective action toward the closing of opium divans in the said Concessions and Settlements, to take steps to that end, as soon as they may deem it possible, on the lines already adopted by several Governments.

8. That the International Opium Commission recommends strongly that each delega- tion move its Government to enter into negotiations with the Chinese with a view to effective and prompt measures being taken in the various foreign Concessions and Settlements in China for the prohibition of the trade and manufacture of such anti- opium remedies as contain opium or its derivatives.

9. That the International Opium Commission recommends that each delegation move its Government to apply its pharmacy laws to its subjects in the Consular districts, Concessions, and Settlements in China.

On behalf of the International Opiuni Commission,

(Signed) CHARLES H. BRENT,

President of the International Opium Commission.

FRED. W. CAREY, XAVIER DE LAFORCADE,

Certified:

(Signed)

Shanghar, February 27, 1909.

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Secretaries.

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