CO129-385 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 332

C

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

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL,

[45605]

330

CO

40533

[November 16.]

ALC2

SECTION 2.

Rrat 18 C In

No. 1.

M. van der Goes to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received November 16.)

M. le Baron,

Légation des Pays-Bas, Londres, le 15 novembre, 1911. EN réponse à l'office que votre Excellence a bien voulu m'adresser en date du 21 octobre dernier, j'ai l'honneur de porter à sa connaissance que, d'après la réponse du Gouvernement des Etats-Unis d'Amérique à une dépêche télégraphique de mon Gouver- nement, seulement quelques Puissances out exprimé leur opinion concernant le programme provisoire de la Conférence sur le Trafic de l'Opium. Ce programme avait été rédigé par le Gouvernement des Etats-Unis et avait été communiqué aux Puissances par une circulaire en date du 1 septembre, 1909. La plupart des Puissances ont décidé de réserver leur opinion jusqu'à la réunion de la conférence.

Dans ces circonstances, le Gouvernement des États-Unis n'a pu rédiger une pro- gramme définitif. Il a pourtant rédigé le mémorandum dont je me permets de joindre une copie à la présente. Ce mémorandum se base sur les différentes réponses reçues et, de l'avis de mon Gouvernement, il pourrait servir de base aux travaux de la conférence.

Enclosure in No. 1.

Veuillez, &c.

VAN DER GOES.

Memorandum for the Netherlands Minister, being an Excerpt from General Instructions issued to American Delegates to the International Opium Conference.

THE need of an international conference was suggested by the American delega- tion to the International Opium Commission at one of the final sittings of that body which met at Shanghai in February, 1909; and although no formal action was taken, the Department of State, having considered the unanimous conclusions arrived at by the commission as a whole, and the report of the American delegates thereto, derined it advisable to issue a proposal to the interested Governments that a conference should meet at The Hague, or elsewhere, composed of one or more delegates of each of the participating Powers, and that such delegates should have full powers to give to the main salutary propositions of the Commission and the essential corollaries derived therefrom the force of law and international agreement. Therefore, on the 1st September, 1909, this Government issued a circular proposal to the Governments concerned, in which it was stated that the United States had learned with satisfaction of the results achieved by the International Opium Commission; that in the opinion of the leaders of the anti-opium movement much had been accomplished; and that both the Government and people of the United States recognised that this was largely due to the generous spirit in which the representatives of the Governments concerned approached the subjects submitted to them.

It was pointed out that the Government of the United States appreciated the magnitude of the opium problem, and the serious economic interests involved in the production of and trade in the drug; and that a deep impression had been made by the friendly co-operation of the powers financially interested, and by the desire as expressed by the resolution of the commission, that the opium evil should be eradicated not only from Far Eastern countries, but also from the home territories and possessions in other parts of the world of the Powers therein represented. It was stated that, as the result of the investigation of the opium problem in the United States, it had become apparent, quite apart from the question as it affected the Philippine Islands, that a serious opium evil obtained in the United States itself; that this was primarily due to the large Chinese population in the country, to the intimate commercial intercourse with the Orient, and to the unrestricted importation of opium and manufacture of morphia.

Thus it was observed that the interest of the United States in the opium problem is material as well as humanitarian, and that, as the result of the investigation made

[2272 g---2]