CO129-464 - Public Offices - 1920 — Page 303

BOS

!

(54/10,P.)

FOREIGN OFFICE,

8.8.1.

January 27th, 1920.

292

sir.

I am directed by Earl Curzon of Kedleston

to acknowledge receipt of your letter 38963/19.3,

of the 6th instant in which you request His

Lordship's observations on the question raised in

your letter of November 26th last, as to the

advisability of adopting a uniform policy in

regard to the export to all countries of opium

and the drugs derived therefrom.

I am to obaerve that, au regarda morphia

and the other drugs svecified in Ch.111 of the

Opium Convention, His Majesty's Government are

bound by Article 13 of the Convention to take

measures to ensure that these drugs shall not

be exported from any part of the British dominions

to the countries of the other contracting Powere

"except when consigned to persons furnished with

the licenses or permits provided for by the lawS

or regulations of the importing country." This

provision would appear to demand a less effec-

tive guarantee than that afforded by the arrange-

ment which His Majesty's Government have already

made with France, the U,S,A. and Japan, and are

proposing to several other Powers, inasmuch as

the

retary

o the Board of Trade.