CO129-417 - Public Offices - 1914 — Page 192

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

!

1

MEC

OPIUM.

(REG 27 AUG 14

[June 26. J

CONFIDENTIAL.

SECTION 1.

[28753]

No. 1.

Sir,

Board of Trade to Foreign Office.-(Received June 26.)

Whitehall, June 25, 1914. I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 20th and 23rd June, with their enclosures, relative to the International Opium Conference.

The Board observe with regret that the ratification of the convention by Germany may be made dependent on the accession not merely of Austria-Hungary (a matter respecting which they themselves considered some guarantee desirable), but of Turkey also. Should this attitude be maintained, it would indeed appear-in view of Sir L. Mallet's despatch No. 425 of the 8th June to fear that the whole negotiations may prove abortive, as it is evident that a convention to which Germany is not a party would serve no useful purpose and could not properly be given effect to by His Majesty's Government.

I am to add that, in the opinion of the Board, the proposal referred to by the British delegates in the third paragraph of their despatch, copy of which accompanied your letter of the 23rd June, that the purely formal step should be taken of "putting the convention into force," without the necessity being imposed on the Governments which adopt this course of even introducing legislation, does not appear to offer any advantages. They concur, therefore, in the views expressed by the delegates in the fourth paragraph of their despatch, and would suggest, for Sir E. Grey's consideration, that Sir W. Collins and Mr. Max Müller should be instructed to resist the proposal to which they refer.

The Board further desire me to say that they concur in the tenour of the commu- nication which Sir E. Grey proposes to address to the delegates with regard to the suggestion that the French and German Governments should be approached by His Majesty's Government.

I am, &c.

H. LLEWELLYN SMITH.

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