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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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OPIUM.
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CONFIDENTIAL.
[3034]
No. 1.
379 5713
[January 31.3
2FB F
SECTION
Sir,
Sir Edward Grey to Baron Gericke.
Foreign Office, January 31, 1911. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 16th instant, enquiring whether His Majesty's Government still make their consent to take part in the proposed opium conference at The Hague, which, I observe, has been postponed until the 1st July next, conditional upon an assurance from the Governments of the Powers concerned that they are prepared to adopt severe measures with a view to prohibiting the trade in and manufacture of morphia and cocaine in their respective countries.
2. I should be glad if you would be so good as to bring to the notice of your Government the following facts, which will, I trust, elucidate the requirements and wishes of His Majesty's Government in regard to this matter.
3. In reply to the invitation of the United States Government, that His Majesty's Government should be represented at an international conference which it was proposed to hold at The Hague for the purpose of conventionalising the resolutions of the Shanghai Commission, I informed the American Ambassador on the 17th September last that His Majesty's Government would be ready, if satisfactory assurances could be given to them on certain points, to take part at the proper time in a conference for the furtherance of this object. I said that in particular they desired to be assured that, in the event of this country participating, the other interested Powers would agree to the conference dealing thoroughly and completely with the question of restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia, which forms the subject of the fifth resolution of the Shanghai Commission, and also with the allied question of cocaine.
4. This resolution runs 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 Governinents 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-offects.'
5. Indian and Chinese experience, however, shows that the morphia and cocaine evil cannot be efficiently controlled except at the source, viz., in the stages of manufacture and of distribution in the manufacturing countries; and I therefore pointed out to Mr. Whitelaw Reid that if the above resolution was to be treated effectively in this sense at the conference, it would be necessary that the participating Powers should have definitely considered beforehand the question whether they were prepared to impose severe restrictions on the manufacture of and trade in morphia and cocaine in their respective countries. I accordingly suggested that the United States Government should ascertain from the several Powers whether, if a conference were held, they would be prepared to discuss in it the morphia and cocaine question from this point of view, and I further suggested that these Powers should be invited to undertake, with a view to such discussion, the indispensable preliminary enquiries into trade conditions, and to collect statistics of manufacture and export.
6. As the Netherlands Government are aware, His Majesty's Government have already set on foot the necessary enquiries in this country, though, for reasons which are known to the United States Government, I fear that several months may still elapse before accurate statistics as to the export from and manufacture of these drugs in the United Kingdom can be obtained.
7. I also observed to Mr. Whitelaw Reid, in the above-mentioned communication, that it might be desirable to ascertain from the Powers, should they agree to undertake
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