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before the present Conference was far lighter than that with which the first Conference had found itself confronted, for while the latter had to formulate in a convention the principles which were to solve the international problem arising from the abuse of opium, inorphine, and cocaine, the mission of the present Conference was limited to the question of ratification.
A dutiful telegram was despatched to Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, the honorary presidency of the Conference was offered to M. de Marees van Swinderen, the members of the secretariat were appointed, and it was decided that French should be the official language of the Conference, though the use of other languages would be permitted at the sessions, and the Conference then adjourned till the following after- noon. We would therefore beg to point out that the official minutes are to be found in the French text, and that the English version only an unofficial summary of the minutes kindly prepared by the secretariat.
At the second session, after some further purely formal preliminaries had been disposed of and delegates had been appointed to serve on the Editing Committee ("Comité de Rédaction") and the Press Committee, the real work of the Conference was commenced. The president proposed, in view of the terms of article 23 of the convention directing an examination into the possibility of ratifying the Opium Convention, and with the object of ascertaining the intentions of the various Govern- ments represented, to invite each delegation, in alphabetical order, to state whether its Government were prepared to proceed at once to ratification.
Eight delegations, namely, those of China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Italy, Luxemburg, Siam, and Spain, declared that their Governments were ready uncon- ditionally to deposit their ratifications, the Italian delegate explaining that the ratification of his Government would cover the colonies of Erythrea, Somaliland, Tripoli, and Cyrene.
Mr. Shinobu, the Japanese delegate, declared that his Government had no objection in principle to depositing their ratification.
Seven delegations, namely, those of Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Hayti, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United States of America, declared that their Governments were ready to proceed to ratification, subject only to the statutory approval of their respective legislative bodies.
Three delegates, those of the Argentine Republic, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, were absent from the meeting.
The remaining delegations of the twenty-four constituting the Conference, only five in number, but including the representatives of countries so vitally interested as France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal, declared that for various reasons their respective Governments were not at present willing to proceed to the ratification of the Opium Convention.
M. Pellet, the French delegate, explained that his Government were ready to ratify the convention as far as regards France proper, but not as regards French Indo- China, as on the one hand they wished to await the final decision of certain Powers which had not as yet signed the convention, but which were important as producers of opium and coca, and on the other hand they intended beforehand to examine carefully the efficacy of the measures which the Chinese Government proposed to adopt for the suppression of the cultivation of opium and for the prevention of the smuggling of epium over the frontier separating China from French Indo-China. At the fourth session M. Pellet supplemented this statement by reading a telegram from his Govern- ment to the effect that, on account of the contraband trade existing on its frontier, Indo-China was for the present unable to sign the convention in its entirety in respect of that colony, although almost all of its provisions were already being enforced, but that it was sincerely desirous of adopting, pari passu with the Chinese Government, further measures in order to eradicate the use of opium as soon as the situation in the southern provinces of China improved. This declaration on behalf of the French Government as regards their possessions in the Far East appears to us to be a matter of such importance that we have hesitated to include France among the countries which were ready to proceed to ratification.
M. von Müller, the German delegate, after referring to the reasons which induced the first Conference to invite all the Powers of Europe and America not represented at that Conference to sign the convention and to make ratification dependent on the replies received, declared that the German Government, considering that ratification by only a proportion of the Powers interested would not achieve the full results aimed at, regretted that they were for the present unable to ratify the Opium Convention.
On being called on to declare whether His Majesty's Government were prepared
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to ratify the Opium Convention, we made a detailed statement (vide p. 12, English summary of minutes) based on our instructions, setting forth the reasons for which His Majesty's Government were unable to proceed to immediate ratification. pointed out that the non-signature of the convention by certain countries, such as Austria-Hungary, Norway, Peru, and Switzerland, would seriously prejudice the effect of the measures proposed for checking the export of morphine and cocaine to the East, and that a not improbable result of the strict control to be exercised in the dominions of the signatory Powers over the manufacture of, and trade in, the drugs in question might be that in non-signatory countries new factories might be started and the output of existing factories increased. Moreover, non-signatory countries would be open to unrestricted importation of the drugs and their ports could be freely used for their illicit transmission to the Eastern consumer. The abstention of Peru would of itself be sufficient to render useless any effort to regulate the trade in cocaine. His Majesty's Government had therefore come to the conclusion that any attempt to suppress the illicit trade in morphine and cocaine would thus be seriously impeded unless all countries which manufacture or are likely to manufacture these drugs could he induced to agree to proposals on the lines of those laid down in the Opium Convention. The first step, therefore, in the opinion of His Majesty's Government, was not ratification under circumstances unlikely to achieve the real object of such ratification, but a combined attempt on the part of the signatory Powers to secure the signatures of those Powers which had either refused to sign or had for the present abstained from doing so. A study of the replies received from certain of those countries had convinced His Majesty's Government that some of the refusals were due to misapprehensions as to the purport and provisions of the convention and that these misupprehensious could be removed by explanations. We laid particular emphasis on the fact that our statement was not to be interpreted as a refusal on the part of His Majesty's Government to ratify, but only as a postponement. On the contrary, we explained that His Majesty's Government were most anxious to ratify at the earliest possible moment at which such action on their part would be likely to achieve the fullest effect, aud meanwhile our instructions were to seek to hasten that moment by securing the co-operation of all the Governments represented at the Conference in inducing those countries which had, for one reason or another, abstained to alter their attitude and consent to sign the convention without further delay.
If we have dwelt at some length on the attitude taken up by us on this occasion we have done so because we feel that on it hinged the whole work accom- plished by the Conference and incorporated in the final protocol.
The Portuguese delegate also declared that ratification by his Government must await the signature of the other Governments; the Powers that had signed the convention had pledged themselves to make economic sacrifices in a humanitarian cause, but these sacritices should not conduce to the profit of other nations who remained free to continue and even to develop their trade in opium, morphia, and cocaine.
The Russian delegate also explained that his Government were not ready at present to ratify the convention, and expressed his agreement with the views put forward by the British delegation.
The Conference was therefore confronted with the position that, while a majority of the Powers represented were ready to proceed to ratification, an important minority The declared that, for the present at all events, they were unable to do so. President expressed the personal opinion that the Governments which were willing to do so might proceed to deposit their ratifications, without waiting until the other Governments had decided to do likewise, but as a matter of fact at this stage of the proceedings no formal action was taken to answer the question submitted to the Conference in the invitation of the Netherland Government, in accordance with article 23 of the convention, namely, whether, notwithstanding the fact that certain of the Powers invited to sign the convention had hitherto failed to do so, the deposit of ratifications could nevertheless take place. It was pointed out subsequently that, unless some definite decision on this point was taken by the Conference, the Govern- ment of the Netherlands would have no authority to accept the instruments of ratification from the Governments which were prepared to ratify. This omission was remedied at the fourth session by the unanimous adoption of a resolution by the Con- ference to the effect that the deposit of ratifications might now take place. Those, therefore, of the Signatory Powers which were ready to ratify were authorised to deposit their ratifications at The Hague, and some Powers proceeded forthwith to make the deposit.
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