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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
[B]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
32219
RECE (October 5017 10.
SECTION 1.
[36069]
No. 1.
Sir,
Mr. Whitelaw Reid to Sir Edward Grey.(Received October 5.)
American Embassy, London, October 4, 1910.
I DULY communicated to my Government the substance of your note of the 17th September last with regard to the proposed International Opium Conference, and I have now the honour to inform you that my Government is highly gratified at the acceptance by the British Government of the proposal of the United States for an International Opium Conference to be held at The Hague,
To avoid unnecessary delay in the meeting of the conference, the Netherlands Government will immediately be informed of the British Government's proposal, that before the mecting of the conference there shall have first been made the necessary preliminary studies as to the trade conditious and manufacture of morphine and cocaine in the interested countries, and their preparedness to impose severo restrictions on such manufacture and trade.
The question of restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphine was thoroughly discussed in the Shanghai commission, and the delegates thereto united in urging upon their Governments that it is highly important that drastic measures should be taken to control the manufacture, sale, and use of this derivative of opium and such other derivatives of the drug as may appear on scientific enquiry to be liable to similar abuse and productive of like ill-effects. This conclusion was embodied in Resolution 5 of the Shanghai commission, which, prepared by the British delegation, is as follows:----
"That the International Opium Commission finds that the unrestricted manu- facture, 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 possessions to control the manufacture, sale, and distribution of this drug, and also of such other derivatives of opium as may appear on scientific enquiry to be liable to similar abuse and productive of like ill-effects."
The question of the manufacture, sale, and distribution of cocaine was not officially considered by the Shanghai commission, but there were many informal discussions which tended to show that the abuse of this drug had begun to make headway in the Far East as well as in the United States and Canada. Therefore, it seems to the Government of the United States that Resolution 5 indicates a willingness on the part of the interested Governments to include cocaine in the category of menacing drugs, and that a cordial co-operation of the Powers may be secured to place it under the same drastic restrictions that are needed in the case of morphine.
The abuse of cocaine is widespread in the United States, and my Government is highly pleased that His Majesty's Government should have taken the initiative in proposing that the question be brought to the attention of the Governments which are to participate in the Opium Conference.
The United States has already completed its examination of the morphine and cocaine questions, reports on these subjects being contained in the general opium report, a copy of which was forwarded to you with my note of the 8th August last. In conformity with the ascertained conditions in the United States and its possessions legislation has been drafted, which, it is hoped, when enacted by congress, will bring under effective control both the foreign and domestic traffic in these drugs.
My Government has made note of your reservations in regard to items numbered (H), (L), (M), and (N) of the tentative programme, which was contained in Mr. Knox's circular note of the 1st September, 1909, that especially they would exclude from discussion your arrangements with China in regard to the ten-year agreement for the progressive restriction of opium and opium production, as well as
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