CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 564

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

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OPIUM.

13008

CONFIDENTIAL.

REC? REGP 16 JUN 11

[May 11.]

SECTION 7.

[18944]

No. 1.

(No. 221.) Sir,

Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Bryce.

Foreign Office, May 11, 1911. THE United States Ambassador informed me to-day that his Government werc communicating with Berlin, The Hague, Lisbon, and Tokyo, expressing the hope that the Governments there would be able to meet fully by the 1st July the British conditions for agreeing to the Opium Conference. The United States Government hoped, therefore, that the British Government would see their way to accept the date proposed by the Dutch Government and already agreed to by all but three Governments. I said that I must consult the India Office, the Colonial Office, and the Board of Trade before I could give a definite reply; but my personal opinion-and I spoke quite impartially, for the Foreign Office had no direct interest in the question was that it would be a pity for the conference to meet before it was in a position to deal effectively with the importation of morphine and cocaine. Our recent opium agreement with China showed that arrangements were already made for bringing to an end the greatest evil connected with opium. A conference which could deal only with opium, and not with morphine and cocaine, would not take matters ranch further forward. If a conference met and separated without dealing with the evils of morphine and cocaine, which were now the most urgent evils, it might do more harm than good, for after having spent energy upon this conference, it might not be possible to arouse again sufficient interest to get another conference together when the information as to morphine and cocaine became available. It occurred to me as a possible alternative that the conference might meet on the 1st July, on the understanding that it should adjourn to some later date if the information as to morphine and cocaine was not forthcoming. Until I had consulted the other departments, I could not say whether this proposal was feasible.

I am, &c.

E. GREY.

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