CO129-394 - Governor Sir May & Public Offices - 1912 [12] — Page 487

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(c) To heroine, its salts, and preparations containing more than 1 per cent. of heroine;

(d) To codeine, its salts, and preparations containing more than 4 per cent. of codeine;

(e.) To any new preparation or derivative of morphine, cocaine, or their respective salts, or to any other alkaloid of opium which may appear, on scientific enquiry, to be liable to similar abuse and productive of like ill-effects.

(Adopted unanimously.)

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

DC

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

2018 476 REG 20 JAN 12

[December 22.]

SECTION 1.

0

[51276]

No. 1.

Sir,

India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received December 22.)

India Office, December 21, 1911.

IN continuation of previous correspondence on the subject of The Hague Opium Conference, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to transmit, for the information of Sir Edward Grey and for communication to the British delegation, a copy of a letter, with enclosures, from the Government of India.*

The object of the letter is, as is stated by the Government of India, to set out the action which has been taken in India on the recommendations of the Shanghai Commission, and, secondly, to urge the imperative necessity for dealing with an evil- the misuse of cocaine and similar drugs--which threatens to become a far greater danger to India than opium has ever been. The Government of India fear that these drugs may replace, with far more disastrous results, the "opium habit," if the latter is suppressed in the Far East.

In paragraph 31, the Government of India suggest a scheme of international regulation and control of the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphine and other derivations of opium, and in paragraph 45, a similar scheme in respect of cocaine and allied drugs.

I am to say that the Secretary of State in Council is of opinion that the letter should be of great assistance to the British delegates in the discussions of the conference, and should enable them to urge forcibly the necessity of effective inter- national rules to regulate the manufacture, sale, distribution, and export of morphia and cocaine.

As at present advised, the Secretary of State in Council does not think that the letter itself should be laid before the conference.

I am, &c.

R. RITCHIE,

* Sent by India Office privately to Sir W. Meyer at the Opium Conference.

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