FOURTH PLENARY SESSION.
Monday, July 8, 1913.
Presidency of Mr. J. T. Cremer.
The meeting opened at 11 o'clock.
All the Delegations were present except those of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
The President read telegrams from Their Excellencies Messrs. HCNEELS and GAMBOA and from Mr. SCHEURER. The former informed the Conference that he was unable to attend the first part of the meeting; the two latter that they could not attend the meeting.
The minutes of the second and third meetings were adopted.
The PRESIDENT then recognized Mr. G. J. Kollen who had so requested
in order that he might make the following statement:
Mr. PRESIDENT!
As Delegate from the United States of America, I desire to express, not only my hearty approval of the deliberations of this honorable body, but also my great satisfaction with the spirit of accord and unanimity that has marked our sessions.
Personally I have long taken a deep interest in this opium question. Many of the graduates of the educational institution with which I have been officially connected for more than forty years, have gone as missionaries to those countries which have suffered so much from the terrible opium habit. And when to-day I hear, upon the very floor of this Conference, the touching plea from the Delegates of those countries to stamp out this evil, then I can not but feel and think that the consecrated men and women who went forth in large numbers from Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, taking their lives in their hands, to deliver and lift up the nations of the Orient, have done much to awaken the world to this great evil and have been largely influential in making such a Conference as this a possibility in this year of grace.
Are we not all agreed that, as a result of their noble work and heroic lives, the Christian world was recently greatly stirred and cheered when the President of the reformed Chinese Government, requested the prayers of believing Christians everywhere, for the firm establishment and prosperity of the nation?
Mr. President, the work of these devoted men and women was not confined to any one church, nor restricted to any one nation. Their work was wider than any church and more comprehensive than any nation. To-day these men and women,
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as well as the countries from which they voluntarily exiled themselves, for the sake of the cause dear to their hearts, are looking to us with longing heart and hopeful expectation for favorable and speedy action.
Should diplomatic or economic questions prevent immediate action; can not we, then, at least now speak to them a word of appreciation concerning their past achievement, and of good will and encouragement in regard to future endeavor?
The nations of the world are becoming closely united. We begin to under- stand, better than ever before, that when one nation suffers, the others suffer with it, and that the altruistic national life leads to international happiness and prosperity.
(Applause)
His Exc. Mr. Marcellin Pellet made a statement as follows:
A telegram received since the last meeting instructs me to make the following statement on behalf of the Governor-General of Indo-China which completes that which I had the honor to make on July 2nd: "On account of the contraband trade in opium which exists on its frontier, Indo-China is at present unable to adhere wholly and officially to the Convention although almost all of its provisions have been enforced; but it is sincerely desirous of adopting, puri passu with the Chinese Government, all new measures further to eradicate, if possible, the use of opium, as soon as the situation in the southern provinces is improved."
Dr. Hamilton Wright said that the American Delegation was in receipt of a communication from the State Department stating that in a document dated May 17 last. Guatemala had approved the Opium Convention. He now handed in a copy of this document and asked that it might be put into the official record.
(See the annex.)
Mr. Stenio Vincent made the following statement:
GENTLEMEN,
Although in our last plenary meeting we adopted the resolution which definitively formulates the principal result of the Conference, it does not appear amiss now to consider certain modifications therein which, without affecting its principle, would tend only to give it a form more diplomatic. This resolution which is repeated in extenso in the proposed Protocol of Cloture which we are now considering, is really again before the meeting for its consideration. I believe that before national signature creates a somewhat diplomatic instrument, endeavor should always be made to improve it by rendering its phrases a little less brusque and brief, or, if you prefer it, a little more flexible. In this connection the ancient classic precept of Boileau should certainly find its application "Polish and repolish unceasingly"; we are now engaged in affairs slightly more important than those of Parnasse.
A perusal of the proposed Protocol of Cloture of the Conference, and parti- cularly of the resolution in question, has suggested certain observations which I deem it my duty to call to the attention of this meeting.
I read, for instance, in Article No. 2 of the resolution, the following phrase: "The Conference regrets that certain Clovernments have as yet declined or omitted to sign the Convention". I believe that there is a little too much rigidity in this phrase. The Conference thus appears, unintentionally no doubt, to pass judgment upon the reasons which have determined certain States to decline to sign, or to abstain from signing, the International Opium Convention. It is not at all necessary for us to convey that impression.
The word "regrets" as it is used, appears to imply blame. It is used exactly as in parliamentary motions when "the House regrets that the Government has
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