(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
C O
[B]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[38869]
No. 1.
34472
RECR
REGE 10 NOV 10 [November 3.]
SECTION 2.
Sir,
Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Whitelaw Reid.
Foreign Office, November 3, 1910. IN the note which you were so good as to address to me on the 4th ultimo with regard to the proposed International Opium Conference to be held at The Hague, your Excellency stated that the Netherlands Government would immediately be informed of His Majesty's Government's proposal that before the meeting of the conference there shall have first been made the necessary preliminary studies as to the trade conditions and manufacture of morphine and cocaine in the interested countries, and their readiness to impose severe restrictions on such manufacture and trade.
In the note which I had the honour to address to your Excellency on the 17th. September, I stated that His Majesty's Government would have pleasure in taking part in an international conference for the purpose of conventionalising the resolutions of the Shanghai Commission, if satisfactory assurances could be given to them on certain points, and that in particular His Majesty's Government desired to be assured that the other participating Powers were willing that the conference should thoroughly and completely deal with the question of restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia, and with the allied question of cocaine.
I have the honour therefore to enquire of your Excellency whether steps bave been taken to obtain the assurances desired from the other Powers, as His Majesty's Govern- ment felt compelled, after careful consideration, to make their consent to take part in the conference conditional upon these assurances being first obtained from the Governments of the Powers concerned.
I have, &c.
[2980 c-2]
E. GREY.
329
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