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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government j
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[1460]
No. 1.
2
569 3533
[January 11.
LV
SECTION 5 FEB 12
British Delegates to International Opium Conference to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received January 11.) (No. 7.) Sir,
The Hague, January 10, 1912. WITH reference to correspondence ending with your telegram of the 9th instant, we have the honour to report that we have sounded the German delegation, who have shown themselves most concerned in the matter, as to the introduction of an article in accordance with the Board of Trade's suggestion that exportation of morphia. cocaine, &c., to countries not adhering to the convention should be permitted only on production to the customs authorities of the exporting country of a certificate from the country of destination that the consignee is authorised to import the drugs either in accordance with the stipulations of the convention or with local laws and regulations which, in the opinion of the customs authorities, are equally stringent. The German delegation emphatically opposed this suggestion, on the ground that the conference contains the representatives of twelve Powers only, and it is at present quite unknown how far outside Powers will adhere. Apart from the possible objections arising from commercial treaties, it would be impossible, they contend, for such a limited number of Powers to set up as regulators of traffic to the rest of the world, or for country (A), within the convention, to set itself up as a judge of the character of the internal regulations of country (B), outside it, while e hypothesi country (B) would not have supplied any information as to persons authorised to import the drugs such as is required, for instance, by article 16 of the draft convention as it now stands.
The German method of meeting the difficulty pointed out by the Board of Trade is to obtain the adhesion of as many outside Powers as possible before the convention comes into operation, and then, if only a limited number of countries remain outside, to consider what special measures might be taken by what would then be the great majority of States in regard to these.
The question of adhesion is still under consideration, but we are bound to say that, as matters at present stand, we think the German objections to the Board of Trade suggestions well founded, and that they would be supported by the conference as a whole. We submit, therefore, that the question raised by the Board of Trade is largely dependent on the form and condition of the adhesion clauses, which have yet to be definitely passed, and that the difficulties in the way of setting up, of a non-adhering Power, the arrangements contemplated in No. 5 of the measures outlined at the informal conference, referred to in the Board of Trade letter of the 3rd January, are at present insuperable.
in respect
With reference to the concluding sentence of your letter under reply, the omission of the original inclusion of the terins powdered and granulated opium in the definition of raw opium was made by the conference, with the assent of the British delegates, because it was found that the terms in question were not free from ambiguity, and, so far as they relate to treated and standardised products, would have included as raw opium what are in fact officinal preparations. We would also point out that in article 1 of the Brussels Agreement of the 29th November, 1906, respecting the unification of the pharmacopoeical formulæ for potent drugs, opii pulvis appears in the list of medicinal substances.
Further, as a question of practical convenience, it was found that it would be difficult to apply literally the specific provisions contemplated in the case of raw opium, which is largely exported in bulk from the producing countries, to relatively small consignments of granulated and powdered opium which had been worked up in intermediate countries.
As indicated in our telegram of the 8th instant, opium which is simply powdered and granulated would, as the definition now stands, remain raw opium. To go farther than this, to demand for the convenience of British trade that all powdered aud
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