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commission, and we entirely agree with the view that in combating the evils attendant on the abuse of opium, it is essential that these resolutions should be taken as the starting point, and attention concentrated on the best means, whether by individual or by joint action, of carrying them to a practical conclusion.
4. We may pause to emphasise this point as it is avowedly the foundation of the proposal now before us. The Shanghai Commission originated in the desire of other Powers to help China in her task of eradicating the opium habit in her own territory: and in a general feeling that so striking an initiative on the part of an Eastern Government imposed on more advanced administrations the duty of undertaking a re-examination of the opium question as it affected themselves. That question, as was admirably stated by the president of the commission in his opening address, had passed (or should have passed) from the "emotional" to the "scientific stage when men deal with ascertained fact, and on the basis of ascertained fact reach certain conclusions
of a practical character." The commission was prepared for its task by previous investigation on the part of the delegates; its freedom from any predominant pre-opium bias was secured by the diversity of interest represented, and by the admission of Powers possessing no substantial interests in the question at all; and the British delegates, and as far as can be gathered most others, were left by their respective Governments with almost unfettered discretion as to the selection and treatment of questions for discussion. The commission's findings were summed up in nine unanimous resolutions, intended to be the basis of future action by the different countries concerned. The question whether, and to what extent, that action involves international co-operation and renewed international discussion must obviously be determined by reference to the actual resolutions.
5. The first of these, acknowledging the sincerity of China's efforts is one which must naturally carry great weight with His Majesty's Government, but calls for no further discussion at The Hague. The second advised the gradual suppression of opiuma smoking" with due regard to the varying circumstances of each country concerned." The third invited each country to re-examine its own system of opium regulation in the light of the systems in force elsewhere; but it recognised the wide variations between the conditions prevailing in the different countries" and abstained from recommending any one uniform system for universal adoption. These two important resolutions evidently contemplate individual as distinct from co-operative action; indeed the domestic subjects with which they deal are obviously unsuitable for international treatment. The same remarks apply for the most part to the minor resolutions (Nos. 7, 8, and 9), relating to the regulation of opium in foreign settlements and concessions in China.
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6. The United States Government, while purporting to take its stand the basis of fact as determined by the Shanghai Commission," proposes that these matters shall not be dealt with separately by each country concerned, or on the spot by their local representatives, but shall come before the suggested conference; and that the conference shall then consider, as regards production, manufacture, and distribution, the advisability of prescribing uniformity where the commission admitted variety. No attempt has been made to justify the re-examination of findings which were so recently pronounced that, at the time when the present proposals must have been framed, the report of last year's commission had not left the printing-press at Shanghai. To take only a single branch of the subject--the question of opium production- India herself possesses two wholly distinct and unassimilable systems of regulation. China cannot regulate but hopes in the future to extirpate. Persia possesses no system at all, and Turkey did not participate in the original commission. On what grounds of proved necessity and by what methods are these administrations to be brought into line? It is certain that they will not be brought into line. India has no intention of altering her own systems. China's course is already marked out, and production in Turkey and Persia, in spite of any pronouncements of any conference, will in all probability be left unregulated as at present.
7. The sixth resolution of the Shanghai Commission recommended the scientific investigation of anti-opium remedies and of the properties and effects of opium and its products. This question was declared by the Chinese representative, whose remarks were endorsed by the American delegation, to be "only second in importance to the suppression of opium in China.” We are therefore surprised to find that this recommendation is neither referred to in the circular letter nor included even indirectly in the wide scope of the suggested programme.
Our own view is that, while there can
of course be no objection in principle to a joint scientific enquiry, the best results are likely to be obtained by independent research. Owing, however, to the practical
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absence in this country of the "opium habit" in the ordinary sense, and to the fact that smoking is not ordinarily practised, we are not closely concerned in the discovery of an anti-opium remedy.
8. The fifth resolution dealt with morphine, and it is evident that in the spread of the morphine habit and its disastrous effects the Shanghai Commission found the greatest menace to the success of China's efforts and grave danger to the eastern possessions of other countries. The commission held, and our own experience confirms their conclusion, that this evil cannot be efficiently controlled except at the source, e, in the stages of manufacture and of distribution in the manufacturing countries. In this belief they strongly urged on such countries the obligation to enforce drastic measures of control. We infer that the American programme is intended to include this matter by implication, though it is given no separate place or prominence. But before joint action can be taken or can be shown to be required it will rest with the Governments concerned to decide individually whether, in the interests of Oriental peoples, they are prepared to impose severe restrictions on manufacture and trade in their bome territories; and they will also have to undertake the necessary preliminary enquiries into trade conditions. We are not hopeful of any effective action being taken until this question is extricated from the mass of agenda enumerated in the American circular and restored to the prominent position which the Shanghai Commission rightly assigned to it.
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We may add that, though India is already concerned in this question, and may in the future be most gravely concerned as a field for illicit importation, no private trading interests in India are involved in its settlement, the only morphine manufactured in India being produced at the Government factory for legitimate medical purposes. small quantity is sold in the London wholesale market by the agents of Government, and any general restrictions on such sales of the kind contemplated in the resolution would of course be readily accepted and observed.
9. In their remaining resolution (No. 4) the Shanghai Commission urged on countries exporting opium "the duty to adopt reasonable measures to prevent at ports We are prepared of departure" the shipment of opium, &c., to prohibitionist countries.
to prohibit the export of opium to such countries under section 19 of the Sea Customs Act and to take all reasonable supplementary measures required to make this prohibition effective. The ports at which opium can be shipped for export are already limited to Bombay and Calcutta, and export is only permitted under Goverment supervision and regulations. The transmission of opium abroad through the post was prohibited until 1906, when the prohibition was withdrawn on technical grounds; we have no objection, so far as India is concerned, to its restoration. As regards packing and identification marks, each variety of our Bengal opium (Patna and Benares) has its own uniform The same is the case with Malwa marks, which are known throughout the Far East. opium. This practically disposes of the various propositions into which the United States circular expands this resolution of the Shanghai Commission, with the exception of the proposal to discuss the advisability of reciprocal right of search of vessels and of measures to prevent the unlawful use of a flag. These last suggestions appear to contemplate a flagrant illicit oversea traffic such as does not in fact exist, and cannot come into being, so far as shipments from India are concerned. So long as China continues, as she still does, to produce large quantities of opium, the movements of which she can only imperfectly control, and other areas in the Far East are also large consumers of opium, there must of course be some leakage into the Philippines, where the United States Government, under considerable geographical disadvantages, are endeavouring to enforce prohibition. If, however, China persists in her present policy of abolition, and the Powers concerned in the Far East accept and put into effect the resolution against opium-smoking which their representatives unanimously adopted at Shanghai, the remedy will come automatically. For the present it appears to us that an international conference dealing with this question will effect nothing more than could readily be settled by ordinary diplomatic methods.
10. To sum up, on a review of the entire proposals in their relation to the recommendations of the Shanghai Commission, we do not find that they conform to the principle laid down in the circular letter, ie., the acceptance of the commission's findings as the basis of fact on which alone practical action in the future can be hopefully founded. Further, a principal object of the proposals appears to us to be not Co-operation in matters of legitimate joint concern, but the establishment of an international censorship in matters of purely individual concern. Finally, the proposed conference, if it keeps within its proper limits, will, we think, find little practical scope for its activities, and the proposal to convene such an assembly at once appears to us to
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