[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
582
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[2678]
No. 1.
3533
m2 5 FEB 12 [January 19
SECTION 3.
Sir,
India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received January 19.)
India Office, January 19, 1912. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 17th January, 1912, on the subject of The Hague Opium Conference, with a draft of a declaration proposed by the British delegates.
In reply, I am to say that presumably the intention is that the convention should apply to India and to the Far Eastern colonies in all respects as it will apply to the United Kingdom, and not otherwise; and that it should cease to apply to them when it ceases to apply to the United Kingdom. I am to suggest the following alternative draft as giving better effect to this view :---
"We declare that the articles of the present convention shall, on ratification, apply to the British Indian Empire and to British colonies in the Far East in all respects and so long as they apply to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; but His Majesty's Government reserves the right of separately signing or separately denouncing the said convention on behalf of any of His Majesty's dominions, colonies, dependencies, or protectorates other than those specified."
I am,
&c.
LIONEL ABRAHAMS.
[2340 t-3]
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