CO129-406 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 421

419

43460

[November 28.]

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.).

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In spite of the provocation and discouragement received, His Majesty's Govern- ment are still desirous of assisting China in her task of opium suppression, and I have been instructed to state that His Majesty's Government are prepared to entertain the request for the revision of the 1911 Agreement, but only on condition that both parties sincerely accept any new agreement that may be concluded as representing the terms on which the India-China opium traffic will until the end be governed, and also that the revised agreement contain an unequivocal and prominent declaration, with adequate guarantees, that China accepts liability for the complete and early disposal of the stocks.

I am prepared, on the receipt of a favourable reply to the above conditions, to indicate the lines on which His Majesty's Government are willing to enter into negotiations with the Chinese Government for the revision of the agreement.

I avail, &c.

B. ALSTON.

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[51025]

No. 1.

Foreign Office to Home Office.

EG 19 DEC 13 SECTION 1.

Sir,

Foreign Office, November 28, 1913. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to transmit to you herewith, to be laid before Mr. Secretary McKenna, copy of a letter from the Colonial Office, proposing that an interdepartmental committee should be appointed to consider the question of introducing legislation to give effect in this country to the provisions of the International Opium Convention of 1912.

It will be within the recollection of Mr. McKenna that, following upon the International Opium Commission which sat at Shanghai in 1909, an International Conference met at The Hague on the 1st December, 1911, to conventionalise the resolutions of this Commission and to discuss the question of restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia and cocaine.

A convention was drawn up at the Conference and signed by the delegates of the twelve countries represented, but the fact that not more than twelve Powers participated in the deliberations rendered it impossible to give that universal effect to the convention which is essential to the proper regulation of the opium traffic. A provision was therefore inserted in the "effectuating" clauses of chapter 6 of the convention that, after the signing of the convention, the first step should be not ratification by the signatory Powers, but the issue of an invitation to the thirty-four Powers who were not represented at the Conference to sign the convention also. In the event of some of these Powers not having signed by the 31st December, 1912, a fresh conference of the signatory Powers was to be called to consider how far the stipulations of the convention could nevertheless be ratified.

On the 31st December, 1912, there was still a number of countries who had not yet become parties to the convention, and a second Conference was accordingly summoned to The Hague in July of this year. By the time the Conference met there remained only ten Powers who had not yet signed the convention, and most of the signatory Governments were represented at the Conference.

At this second Conference it was resolved that ratifications of the convention could be deposited thenceforward, and, further, that the signatory Powers should be asked to support such representations as might be addressed by the Netherlands Government to the non-signatory Powers with a view to inducing them to withhold their signatures no longer.

The number of non-signatory Powers is now considerably smaller, and there is every prospect that by the end of the present year it will be so reduced that there will be no longer any serious obstacle to ratification.

By the terms of the convention each of the contracting parties binds itself to introduce within six months of the entry into force of the convention such measures as may be required to give effect in the respective countries to the provisions of the convention. Sir E. Grey is therefore inclined to agree with Mr. Harcourt that the time has now come when steps should be taken to consider the question of what legislation must be laid before Parliament in order that this country may comply with the requirements of the convention.

I am consequently to enquire whether Sir E. Grey is correct in his belief that the Home Office is the Department which will be chiefly concerned in carrying out such legislation in Great Britain? Should this be the case, the bulk of the work of any interdepartmental committee which is to consider the matter must necessarily fall upon the representative of the Home Office, and, consequently, it will probably be advisable that he should, at any rate after the first sitting, preside over the meetings. Sir E. Grey proposes to invite, besides your Department, the Board of Trade, the Board of Customs, the India Office, and the Colonial Office to send representatives to serve on the committee, and he will be prepared to call the committee together as soon as a reply is received to this letter and to arrange a convenient date for the first meeting in correspondence with the Departments concerned.

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