[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] C
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[69769]
No. 1.
194
4156
Pac
REG 27 JAN 15)
[October 1.
SECTION 1.
Sir,
British Delegates to International Opium Conference to Sir Edward Grey.
Foreign Office, October 1, 1914. WE have the honour of transmitting to you herewith the final protocol of the third International Opium Conference, held at The Hague on the 15th-25th June. 1914. No volume containing the official records of the sessions has yet been issued; the delay is doubtless attributable to the European war. In continuation of the accounts already furnished of the first and second Conferences [Cd. 6448 and 7276] we beg to report to you on the proceedings and results of the third Conference.
The position of affairs in June of this year was duly summarised in our instruc- tions. The invitation to the third Conference by the Netherlands Government stated that its object would be to institute an enquiry concerning the possibility of putting the convention in force, although all the Powers invited to sign the convention had not agreed to do so. This invitation was in obedience to a resolution passed by the second Conference, the terms of which appeared to contemplate the possibility of the coming into force of the convention, not only without the signature of all the invited Powers, but without the deposit of ratifications by all the signatory Powers; otherwise the coming into force appeared to be provided for automatically by article 24 of the convention.
Our instructions authorised us to announce that the reasons which had precluded ratification by His Majesty's Government had ceased to exist, and that the deposit of the instrument of ratification would be made as soon as the necessary formalities had been carried out; we were further advised to press for similar ratification by all the signatory Powers which had not yet done so.
The first session, on the 15th June, was opened by a speech from bis Excellency M. Loudon, Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Netherlands Government. He referred to the first Conference of 1911-12, at which only twelve Powers were represented, but which drew up the Opium Convention; and to the second of 1913, which proceeded from the first, and which decided that, although certain Powers who had been invited to sign the convention had not then done so, the deposit of ratifica- tions might nevertheless take place. He then stated that the chief task of the third Conference would be to reply to the question formulated by a resolution of the second Conference, viz, whether it was possible for the convention to come into force, although the signature of all the invited Powers had not been obtained. M. Loudon then proceeded to explain the manner in which the Netherlands Government had carried out the duty with which they had been entrusted under the protocol of the second Conference. Pertt, Sweden, Norway, Montenegro, Roumania, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Uruguay had adhered. Austria-Hungary had in principle adhered; and though for constitutional reasons the Dual Monarchy had not signed, it bad declared, nevertheless, its firm intention to adhere to the convention, and to take the necessary steps to put it in force. Greece had signed, with a reservation in respect of her newly-acquired territory. Turkey and Servia had categorically refused signature, the latter because she had not been able to study the question sufficiently, the former for economic reasons. Up to the present time eight ratifications had been deposited, and Great Britain was about to ratify shortly. The question, then, now before the Conference was to determine whether the convention can come into force notwith- standing the attitude of Turkey and Servia and the partial reserve of Greece. Agreement among all the Powers of the world with the object of subduing, for the good of humanity, a passion excited by the lust of lucre was, said M. Loudon, a new
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