CO129-472 - Others - 1921 — Page 61

R. & S. 8057.* Sir,

ENCLOSURE.

India Offer to Board of Trade.

India Office, 12th October 1920. I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. C.R.T. 3850, dated the 22nd September 1920.

2. The Board of Trade suggest that the system now proposed for regulating the export from the United Kingdom of opium and similar drugs might prove suitable for adoption by the Government of India, as regards exports from that country also. Mr. Montagu has no objection to transmitting this suggestion for the consideration of the Government of India; on the receipt of their reply, a further communication will be made.

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3. He takes, however, this opportunity to point out that this proposal goes much further than the Hague Convention coutemplates. Exports from India are at present regulated according to the principles laid down by that Convention raw opium is not exported to countries which prohibit its entry, and the export of such opium to countries which restrict import is limited strictly in accordance with their requirements. No "prepared opium" is exported; and there is no export trade in "medicinal opium or cocaine. regards raw opinu." which is the only article of this class of material importance to India, the Convention does not impose upon importing countries any obligation to limit their imports to the quantities required "exclusively for legitimate medicinal or scientific purposes," nor does it stipulate that exporting countries shall require, as a condition precedent to permitting export, a certificate, in the terms stated above, issued under the authority of the Government of the country of import. The Convention was framed with the object of bringing about the gradual suppression of the abuse of opium"; and the practical measures embodied in the Convention, and considered sufficient to attain that end, are much less drastic than those now suggested for adoption by India.

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4. Apart from this, even if exports from India were limited to the quantities required for "legitimate medicinal or scientific purposes it will be appreciated that unless other producing countries -notably Turkey and Persia-effectively limited exports to the same extent, the object aimed at would not be attained.

5. It will be within the recollection of the Board of Trade that His Majesty's Government have, throughout the discussions which led up to the Hague Convention, and subsequently, laid special emphasis upon the contention that no results of practical value could be attained unless all the countries affected co-operation whole heartedly in order to suppress the opium traffic. Mainly as a result of the war, there now appears a reasonable prospect that the provisions of the Hague Convention will become generally operative; these provisions have hitherto been considered suitable and adequate for the gradual suppression of the trallic, and in the circumstances Mr. Montagu, as at present advised, would prefer to await the result of their operation before tacitly abandoning the principles on which that Convention is based, and attempting to secure international action on the more drastic lines now suggested,

The Assistant Secretary,

Board of Trade.

I uni, &c.,

I. J. KERSHAW.

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1921

FROM

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