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THE OPIUM EVIL.
I am not able at the present moment, however, to ask the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the convention, for it is provided by the final articles of the convention that ratifica- tion is to depend upon the Netherlands Government securing by the 31st of December next the supplementary signatures of 34 States named in article 22 of the convention, and that in case the signatures of all the powers invited to sign the convention shall not have been secured by December 31, 1912, the Netherlands Government shall immediately invite all the powers who have signed by that date to designate delegates to proceed to The Hague to examine into the possibility of nevertheless depositing their ratifications. It is my hope and belief that the Netherlands Government will secure the necessary signatures to the convention by the date fixed, and that I can then ask the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the convention.
Therefore, at the present time the International Opium Convention and its protocole de clôture are submitted to the Congress merely for its information as to the great step in advance which has been taken by 12 States in cooperation with the United States to bring the opium evil to an end."
THE WHITE HOUSE, May 31, 1912.
The PRESIDENT:
WM. H. TAFT.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, May 28, 1912.
I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the American Delegation to the International Opium Conference held at The Hague beginning December 1, 1909, and adjourning January 23, 1912, the American delegates being the Right Rev. Charles II. Brent, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Philippine Islands, Mr. Hamilton Wright, of Maine, and Mr. Henry J. Finger, of California.
This report briefly reviews the work of the International Opium Commission which, due to the efforts of this Government, met in Shanghai in 1909, and traces the consistent and successful efforts on the part of the United States to secure the cooperation of all the Governments immediately concerned with the opium problem. It should therefore be considered as in continuation of the report on the International Opium Commission and on the opium problem as seen within the United States, which I had the honor to transmit to you on February 18, 1910, and which is contained in Senate Docu- ment No. 377, Sixty-first Congress, second session.
The accompanying report summarizes the steps leading to the con- ference at The Ilague, shows the enlargement of its scope by the inclusion of the consideration of the morphine, cocaine, and Indian hemp drug evils, and exhaustively treats of and explains the con- vention and the acts signed on January 23, 1912, by the represent- atives at the conference of the 12 powers party thereto, to wit: The United States, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Siam, and Persia.
Immediately upon the assembling of the conference it was pointed out, as had been the case at the Shanghai Commission, that the restriction of the manufacture and scale of habit-forming drugs
THE OPIUM EVIL.
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presented commercial and economic, as well as moral, questions of great importance, and that "it would be useless for those States represented in the conference, and who were the largest producers of opium, morphine, cocaine, etc., to agree to radical measures for the international control of these drugs so long as it was open to the nationals of those States not represented at the conference to con- tinue or take up the production of and traffic in these drugs.' To this is due a radical departure with respect to ratification; for, instead of the usual conventional provision for ratification, the International Opium Convention provides for the adherence thereto, on the invita- tion of the Netherlands Government, of all the nonsignatory Govern- ments in Europe and America (34 in all) before any steps may be taken toward the ratification of the convention. In case the entire 34 powers do not adhere before December 31, 1912, another con- ference is to take place at The Hague attended by the representa- tives of the signatory and adhering powers. Should this conference be necessary, then the plenipotentiaries thereto shall fix an early date for the ratification of the convention.
The convention defines raw opium, prepared opium, medicinal opium, morphine, cocaine, and heroin; provides for the enactment of ɗficacious laws and regulations for the control of the production and distribution of raw opium; for the limiting of the number of ports or other places through which raw opium shall be exported or im- ported; for the prohibiting of the exportation of raw and prepared opium to prohibiting countries and for the regulation of the exporta- tion of raw and prepared opium to countries which limit their impor- tation; for the importation of raw opium and for the exportation of prepared opium through authorized persons only; for the marking of packages of raw opium exceeding 5 kilograms in weight and for the marking of all packages of prepared opium; for the gradual sup- pression of the manufacture, internal traffic in, and use of prepared opium; and for the prohibiting of the importation and exportation of prepared opium as soon as possible. In general, its provisions regarding medicinal opium, morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts are similar. It further, in a separate chapter, deals specifically with the relations between China and the "treaty powers" with regard to the opium trallic and the traffic in newer habit-forming drugs, China pledging to take strict measures for the prevention of their illicit use and the "treaty powers" on their part pledging themselves to aid China in these her efforts. Provision is likewise made for an interchange of laws, regulations, statistical information, and other data regarding the opium and allied traffics and habits.
By an additional protocol, the conference expressed the opinion that the attention of the Universal Postal Union should be drawn to the urgency of regulating the transmission by post of raw opium, morphine, and cocaine, and their respective salts, and to the necessity of prohibiting the transmission of prepared opium by the post. The conference further expressed the opinion that it is advisable to study the question of Indian hemp from the statistical and scientific standpoint with a view to regulating its misuse, should the necessity therefor make itself felt, by domestic legislation or by an international agreement.
In sum, recognizing the principle that not by national action alone but only through concerted international action can the question be
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