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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
TREGETA JUN
[April 7.]
OPIUM
CONFIDENTIAL.
SECTION 1.
[44342]
(No. 67.) Sir,
No. 1.
Lord Robert Cecil to Sir C. Greene.
Foreign Office, April 7, 1917. I TRANSMIT to you herewith copy of a letter from the Board of Trade on the subject of the export to Japan of morphia and its derivatives.
Your Excellency will observe that, while exports of morphia from this country are only permitted under licence, such licences have, up to the present, been given with complete freedom, and that the quantity of this drug exported bears no relation to what may be considered the needs of Japan for legitimate medicinal purposes. which have from time to time been drawn up by His Majesty's Legation at Peking Reports concerning the prevalence and growth of the morphia habit in Manchuria lead to the conclusion that exports from this country form the basis of a large and doubtless lucrative traffic carried on by Japanese traders among the Manchurian population.
As a result of the above-mentioned state of affairs a number of complaints have been received by this Department from the societies interested in the suppression of opium and its derivatives, and His Majesty's Government find it difficult any longer to justify the unrestricted issue of export licences. Before, however, steps are taken to diminish the number of such licences issued, I should be glad to receive your Excellency's views as to the legitimate requirements of Japan in this drug for medicinal purposes, and as to the attitude which the Japanese Government might be expected to adopt if the issue of licences were in fact restricted.
His Majesty's Government would welcome the co-operation of the Japanese Government in putting an end to the traffic in morphia to Manchuria, as an agitation in regard to that traffic would be most undesirable.
I am, &c.
ROBERT CECIL.
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