CO129-382 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 377

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of importation into any particular province except on the clearest evidence that the import of native opium from other provinces had been effectively stopped, and cultivation in the provinces itself permanently suppressed.

"

3. As to earmarking.' Out of our genuine desire to assist China, we have started the system of exportation under special certificate, though we were under no obligation to do so, and we are prepared to continue on condition (a) that an agreement on the lines suggested in our telegram of the 15th October last is concluded; (b) that adequate notice, not less than six months, is given of the exclusion of uncertified chests from the treaty ports; and (c) that an adequate guarantee is given that all uncertified Indian opium stored in treaty ports, or at Hong Kong, on the date from which exclusion comes into force, will be treated in the same way as certified opium. The consequences would be most serious if China at any future time discriminated against uncertified opium hitherto sold with the implied guarantee of an open market.

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

[B]

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[3034]

No. 1.

13375

of 21 FEB 1!

[January 26.1

SECTION 4.

India Office to Foreign Office.—(Received January 26.)

India Office, January 25, 1911.

Sir,

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 23rd January, 1911, on the subject of the proposed Opium Conference at The Hague.

In reply I am to say that the Earl of Crewe concurs with Sir Edward Grey that it is desirable to communicate to the Netherlands Government the gist of the communication made to the American Government on the 17th September. His Lordship also agrees that similar information might with advantage be given to the French and the Portuguese Governments.

With regard to the draft of the reply which it is proposed to return to the Netherlands Minister, I am to make the following suggestions :-

1. Between the 8th and 9th paragraphs of the draft it might be well to insert a paragraph to the effect that "His Majesty's Government are still of the opinion that it would be useless to convene a conference unless the participating Powers are agreed in principle as to the necessity for placing effective restrictions on the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia and cocaine, so as to enable Eastern countries which place restrictions on the opium habit to check contraband imports of these drugs." This would serve to give a definite answer to the Netherlands Minister's enquiry as to whether His Majesty's Government had abandoned the "second" condition.

2. In view of Baron Gericke's statement that Dr. Hamilton Wright made to the Netherlands Minister at Washington the communication referred to in M. Pichon's note it might be more correct to say in paragraph 9 of the draft: "I observe with some surprise that the Minister of the Netherlands Government at Washington should have been informed," &c.

3. At the end of paragraph 9, words to the following effect might be added: "No communication on the question appears to have been made by the Japanese Govern- ment. The attitude of the Japanese Government is important, as by all accounts Japan is one of the countries from which morphia is conveyed in large quantities, in spite of the preventive efforts of the Chinese Government, into China." Messrs. E. D. Sassoon and Co. and Messrs. David Sassoon and Co., in their joint letter of the 2nd November, 1910, to the Foreign Office, recently drew attention to Japan's activity in this direction.

I am, &c.

R. RITCHIE.

[1857 cc-4