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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[10401]
Sir,
No. 1.
C.O. (Maroko)]
SECTION 2. (Ref 12 APR 131
Board of Trade to Foreign Office. (Received March 5.)
Board of Trade, March 4, 1913. I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th February, transmitting copy of a note from the Netherlands chargé d'affaires, relative to the proposed summoning of a conference at The Hague next June, to discuss the question of the ratification of the International Opium Convention.
The Board concur in Sir E. Grey's proposal to appoint Mr. Max Müller and Sir W. Collins as delegates to attend the proposed conference.
They cannot, however, conceal their conviction that the non-adherence to the convention of European countries of importance, and especially of Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, and Norway, would tend to render nugatory the entire system of proposals for checking the export of morphia and cocaine to the East, whilst, as regards cocaine, the abstention of Peru would of itself counteract any efforts that the European Powers even if themselves united-might make to put an end to the illicit trade in the drug. It appears from the enclosure in M. van der Goe's note that Switzerland certainly, and Austria-Hungary, Norway and Peru probably, will not be prepared to adhere to the convention. Should this be so, the Board are strongly of opinion that the convention in its present form will fail to produce the beneficial effects intended, and they therefore consider that the strongest effort should be made to induce the countries named to adhere to the convention, even if, as is possible, this should necessitate the postponement of ratification by His Majesty's Government.
The abstention of any European country of importance would be fatal to the convention in two distinct ways:-
1. In the first place, it would be open to manufacturers in those countries to prepare morphia and cocaine, and export it without restriction to the East. In regard to this point, the Board understand from Mr. Whiffen, of Messrs. Whiffen and Sons (Limited), the leading manufacturers of morphia in the United Kingdom, that morphia is already manufactured to some extent in Switzerland, and that its manufac- ture in that country could easily be developed. Norwegian manufacturers have already gained a considerable reputation for the manufacture of certain fine chemicals (for which the country possesses natural advantages), and the skill thus acquired could be turned without difficulty to the manufacture of morphia and cocaine. Moreover, existing chemical manufacturers in Germany would probably be prepared to establish works in Switzerland or in Austria-Hungary.
2. But apart from the possibility of a mere transfer of manufacture to or develop- ment of existing manufacture in European territories not bound by the convention, such territories are under the convention as negotiated open to the unrestricted importation of morphia and cocaine from countries which are parties to the convention, Sir E. Grey will recollect that the proposals originally put forward by the British delegates for the consideration of the conference included a proposal which would have bad the effect of restricting the export by a party to the convention to countries which were not parties thereto, but that this proposal was eventually abandoned owing to the opposition of the German delegates.
It would, of course, be especially easy for German manufacturers to use Austria-Hungary and Switzerland as countries of transit through which their manufactures could be conveyed to the Eastern consumer. It is, however, understood that manufacturers in the United Kingdom would also be in a position to utilise Trieste, Fiume, &c, for the same purpose, if Austria-Hungary remains outside the convention.
As regards the effect of the non-adherence of Peru, Sir E. Grey is of course aware that the bulk of the raw material for the manufacture of cocaine is derived from that country, and the Board understand that already, without the employment of any especially elaborate scientific methods, a large quantity of coca leaf is submitted to a process of extraction in Peru, and that the extract contains seven-tenths of the amount
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