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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
C. O.
6406
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[January 21.]
DE 19 FEB 14
SECTION 1.
[2215]
No. 1.
Sir,
Foreign Office to Privy Council Office.
Foreign Office, January 21, 1914. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to transmit to you herewith, to be laid before the Privy Council, copy of a letter from the Colonial Office,* proposing that an inter-departmental 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 the Council that, following upon the Inter- national 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 Powers who had not yet become parties to the convention, and a second conference was accordingly summoned to The Hague in July last. By the time the Conference met there remained only ten countries 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 до longer.
The number of non-signatory Powers is now so small that His Majesty's Govern- ment are seriously considering the question of immediate 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 agrees with Mr. Harcourt in considering that the time has come when attention must be given to the question of what legislation must be laid before Parliament in order that this country may comply with the requirements of the convention.
On the understanding, therefore, that the Home Office would be chiefly concerned in carrying out such legislation in Great Britain, a letter was addressed to that Department on the 28th November suggesting that if this was indeed the case the Home Office representative should preside over the meetings of the inter-departmental committee. A reply has now been received from the Department from which it appears that the Privy Council will be principally interested in the legislation which must be introduced, and in these circumstances the bulk of the work of the inter-departmental committee must necessarily fall upon the representative of your Department, and consequently it would seem 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
• Colonial Office, October 29, 1918.
[2032 x-1]
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