Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1912

Senate Document No. 733, Sixty-second Congress, second session.

Message from the President of the United States to Congress, transmitting communication of the Secretary of State covering the report of the American delegation to the International Opium Conference held at The Hague from December 1, 1911, to Jannary 23, 1912.¹

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of the Secretary of State covering the report of the American delegation to the International Opium Conference held at The Hague from December 1, 1911, to January 23, 1912.

In submitting this report the Secretary of State makes certain recommendations regarding bills now before the Congress for the control of our foreign and domestic traffic in habit-forming drugs. I have several times called the attention of the Congress to the necessity for the passage of the proposed measures, and I now indorse the view of the Secretary of State that the Congress should promptly pass these measures, more especially because this Government took the initiative and has been generously supported by 12 other Governments in its efforts to mitigate, if not entirely suppress, the world’s opium evil.

Inasmuch as the International Opium Convention and its protocole de cloture, signed at The Hague by representatives of the United States, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Pèrsia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam, have been given publicity by the conference and by the signatory Governments., it is deemed not improper to accompany the report with authentic copies of them.

I am not able at the present moment, however, to ask the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the convention, for it is provided by the final articles of the convention that ratification is to depend upon the Netherlands Government securing by the 31st of December next the supplementary signatures of 34 States named in article 22 of the convention, and that in case the signatures of all the powers invited to sign the convention shall not have been secured by December 31, 1912, the Netherlands Government shall immediately invite all the powers who have signed by that date to designate delegates to proceed to The Hague to examine into the possibility of nevertheless depositing their ratifications. It is my hope and belief that the Netherlands Government will secure the necessary signatures to the convention by the date fixed, and that I can then ask the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the convention.

Therefore, at the present time the International Opium Convention and its protocole de clôture are submitted to the Congress merely for its information as to the great step in advance which has been taken by 12 States in cooperation with the United States to bring the opium evil to an end.

Wm. H. Taft.

The White House, May 31, 1912.

The Secretary of State to the President.

[Inclosure.]

Department of State,
Washington, May 28, 1912.

The President:

I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the American Delegation to the International Opium Conference held at The Hague beginning December 1, 1909, and adjourning January 23, 1912, the American delegates being the Right Rev. Charles H. Brent, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Philippine Islands, Mr. Hamilton Wright, of Maine, and Mr. Henry J. Finger, of California.

This report briefly reviews the work of the International Opium Commission, which, due to the efforts of this Government, met in Shanghai in 1909, and traces the consistent and successful efforts on the part of the United States to secure the cooperation of all the Governments immediately concerned with the opium problem. It should therefore be considered as in continuation of the report on the International Opium Commission and on the opium problem as seen within the United States, which I had the honor to transmit to you on February 18, 1910, and which is contained in Senate Document No. 377, Sixty-first Congress, second session.

The accompanying report summarizes the steps leading to the conference at The Hague, shows the enlargement of its scope by the inclusion of the consideration of the morphine, cocaine, and Indian hemp drug evils, and exhaustively treats of and explains the convention and the acts signed on January 23, 1912, by the representatives at the conference of the 12 powers party thereto, to wit: The United States, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Siam, and Persia.

Immediately upon the assembling of the conference it was pointed out, as had been the case at the Shanghai Commission, that the restriction of the manufacture and scale of habit-forming drugs presented commercial and economic, as well as moral, questions of great importance, and that “it would be useless for those States represented in the conference, and who were the largest producers of opium, morphine, cocaine, etc., to agree to radical measures for the international control of these drugs so long as it was open to the nationals of those States not represented at the conference to continue or take up the production of and traffic in these drugs.” To this is due a radical departure with respect to ratification; for, instead of the usual conventional provision for ratification, the International Opium Convention provides for the adherence thereto, on the invitation of the Netherlands Government, of all the nonsignatory Governments in Europe and American (34 in all) before any steps may be taken toward the ratification of the convention. In case the entire 34 powers do not adhere before December 31, 1912, another conference is to take place at The Hague attended by the representatives of the signatory and adhering powers. Should this conference be necessary, then the plenipotentiaries thereto shall fix an early date for the ratification of the convention.

The convention defines raw opium, prepared opium, medicinal opium, morphine, cocaine, and heroin; provides for the enactment of efficacious laws and regulations for the control of the production and distribution of raw opium; for the limiting of the number of ports or other places through which raw opium shall be exported or imported; for the prohibiting of the exportation of raw and prepared opium to prohibiting countries and for the regulation of the exportation of raw and prepared opium to countries which limit their importation; for the importation of raw opium and for the exportation of prepared opium through authorized persons only; for the marking of packages of raw opium exceeding 5 kilograms in weight and for the marking of all packages of prepared opium; for the gradual suppression of the manufacture, internal traffic in, and use of prepared opium; and for the prohibiting of the importation and exportation of prepared opium as soon as possible. In general, its provisions regarding medicinal opium, morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts are similar. It further, in a separate chapter, deals specifically with the relations between China and the “treaty powers” with regard to the opium traffic and the traffic in newer habit-forming drugs, China pledging to take strict measures for the prevention of their illicit use and the “treaty powers” on their part pledging themselves to aid China in these her efforts. Provision is likewise made for an interchange of laws, regulations, statistical information, and other data regarding the opium and allied traffics and habits.

By an additional protocol, the conference expressed the opinion that the attention of the Universal Postal Union should be drawn to the urgency of regulating the transmission by post of raw opium, morphine, and cocaine, and their respective salts, and to the necessity of prohibiting the transmission of prepared opium by the post. The conference further expressed the opinion that it is advisable to study the question of Indian hemp from the statistical and scientific standpoint with a view to regulating its misuse, should the necessity therefor make itself felt, by domestic legislation or by an international agreement.

In sum, recognizing the principle that not by national action alone but only through concerted international action can the question be solved, the convention so limits and safeguards the manufacture of and national and international traffic in these drugs as to make possible to a great degree the stamping out of their illicit use.

It is a source of deep satisfaction that this Government has taken such a prominent part toward the accomplishment of these great international reforms.

While this Government has been so actively engaged internationally in attempting to solve the problem of successfully coping with the traffic in and illicit use of habit-forming drugs, nationally it has advanced not one step since the enactment, in February, 1909, at the moment of the meeting of the Shanghai Commission of the “Act to prohibit the importation and use of opium for other than medicinal purposes.” That this legislative inaction has not passed unnoticed abroad is made clear by the following from the accompanying report:

There is no doubt that during the sittings of the International Opium Conference at The Hague the American delegation was placed in a somewhat embarrassing position owing to the neglect of the Congress to pass legislation which had been urged upon it by the Executive, aiming to perfect the opium-exclusion act of February, 1909, and to bring under efficient control the export and interstate commerce in opium and other habit-forming drugs. Both formally and informally, it was pointed out to the American delegates at that conference that the other nations could have little hope for a final suppression of opium and allied evils by international action so long as the United States, which had initiated the movement, failed to adopt the standard of national control in vogue in several European nations and in Japan.

In view of the foregoing reasons I have the honor to recommend that the accompanying report be transmitted to the Congress, for its information; and that, as the Department of State has made a thorough investigation of the conditions in regard to the abuse of opium and habit-forming drugs in the United States and its possessions, and as the bills drafted to correct these conditions have been carefully revised and perfected in the light of the International Opium Convention, you will again urge upon Congress their speedy consideration. If not so considered the American Government may be justly accused of being half-hearted in its effort to mitigate or suppress the opium and allied evils, an effort in which it has the earnest cooperation of the chief powers of Europe and Asia.

Respectfully submitted.

P.C. Knox.

[Subinclosure.]

Report from the Delegates of the United States to the Secretary of State.

Department of State,
Washington, May 15, 1912.

Sir: The following report, made on behalf of the American delegates to the International Opium Conference held at The Hague from December 1, 1911, to January 23, 1912, is in continuation of a report of January 1, 1910, made to you on behalf of the American delegates to the International Opium Commission, which met at Shanghai in February, 1909. (S. Doc. No. 377, 61st Cong., 2d sess.)

That report, in addition to dealing with the proceedings, reports and conclusions of the International Opium Commission, contained a wide range of data, embracing treaties affecting citizens of the United States in regard to the opium traffic, contracted between the United States and China, Siam, and the former independent State of Korea; statutes respecting Americans engaged in the foreign opium traffic; tariff, internal-revenue, and other statutes covering the trade in opium in the United States and its possessions; the opium problem as seen in the Philippines; the opium, morphine, and cocaine vices as they had developed and were then seen in the continental United States, and a review of the effect of treaties, tariff, internal-revenue, and other Federal laws upon the importation into the United States and the abuse therein of opium, morphine, and cocaine

After reviewing the work of the International Opium Commission and the results attained, it was pointed out that although no official action was taken by the commission for continued international action to solve the problems which it had studied and the vices which it had condemned, it was, nevertheless, generally expected by the commissioners that the United States Government would proceed to arrange for an international conference composed of delegates, with full powers, to conventionalize the conclusions of the commission and the corollaries derived therefrom, with the object of giving them the force of law and international agreement.

For the investigation of the international and national aspects of the opium evil an appropriation of $20,000 was made by the Congress by the act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909. That part of the act pertinent to the subject is as follows:

[H. R. 21260.—Public, No. 141.]

AN ACT Making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, for the objects hereinunder expressed, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909, namely:

International investigation of opium evil.—To enable the President to appoint not more than three commissioners to collate and complete on behalf of the United States information bearing on the opium question, and a secretary, who shall act as disbursing officer, and for traveling expenses, stationery, printing, and other incidental expenses connected with the investigation, and the meeting of the commissioners for the purpose of finding common ground for joint and several recommendations and reports to their respective Governments with a view to the suppression of the opium evil, $20,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary.

Through the strict economy of the American commissioners to the International Opium Commission, some $5,000 of this appropriation remained in hand after the adjournment of the commission. By your direction it was applied to the continuation of the work arising out of the commission, and until such time as the Congress should make a further appropriation to enable the Government to carry to a logical conclusion the task which it had undertaken.

In transmitting this report to the President, you recommended that the Congress be asked to appropriate the sum of $25,000, or so much thereof as might be necessary, so as to enable this Government to continue its efforts to mitigate if not entirely stamp out the opium evil through the proposed international conference and otherwise by further investigations and proceedings. Your recommendation for a new appropriation was supported by the President in transmitting the report to the Senate and House of Representives, and in the general deficiency act of 1910 the Congress provided as follows:

To enable the Government to continue its efforts to mitigate if not entirely stamp out the opium evil, through a proposed international conference and otherwise, by further investigation and proceedings, $25,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of State.

There was, therefore, no break in the continuity of the effort of this Government to secure an international opium conference to follow upon, broaden, and conclude the work of the international commission, and on September 1, 1909, the Department of State issued instruction to the diplomatic officers of the United States accredited to the Governments which were represented in the International Opium Commission, containing proposals for an International Opium Conference. That instruction is as follows: [Omitted here; printed in For. Rel. 1909, pp. 107–111.]

Favorable responses were almost immediately received from the interested Governments to the above circular proposal, the project for the assembling of an International Opium Conference composed of delegates with full powers having met with general favor. By September, 1910, all the powers but one¹ which had taken part in the International Opium Commission had signified to this Government their willingness to continue to cooperate with it in the international movement for the settlement of the opium and allied questions, while the tentative program contained in the department’s circular proposal was broadened by suggestions made by the British Government to the effect that, those Governments sending delegates to the conference should agree beforehand to a thorough study of the production, manufacture, and traffic in morphine and cocaine, and should pledge themselves before the assembling of the conference to the principle of drastic legislation for the control of the manufacture and use of these drugs. The additional proposals of the British Government were accepted by all of the interested Governments. In addition, the Italian Government proposed that the conference deal with the production, manufacture, and traffic in the Indian hemp drugs in a manner similar to opium, morphine, and cocaine.

The date for the assembling of the conference was originally fixed by the Netherlands Government for May 31, 1912, but because several of the powers were not able to make the necessary, study of the morphine and cocaine questions by that time, the date for the meeting of the conference was postponed to December 1, 1912.

The delegation of the United States to the conference was composed of the following members:

• Delegates plenipotentiary: Charles H. Brent, of the Philippine Islands; Hamilton Wright, of Maine; Henry J. Finger, of California.
• Secretary to the commission: Frederic L. Huidekoper, of Washington, D. C.
• Assistant secretary and disbursing officer: Wallace J. Young, of Illinois.

The instructions to the American delegation were as follows: [Printed above, pp. 188, 193.]

The Dutch Government set aside for the use of the conference a part of the Hall of the Knights, the seat of the States General, and on the first day of December, 1912, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the conference was opened by his excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands in the presence of the delegations representing the twelve nations, the diplomatic corps, the press, and the general public. His excellency the foreign minister made a felicitous address of welcome, saying amongst other things, that the Netherlands Government considered it a special privilege to greet at the royal residence a conference of eminent diplomats and experts arrived from the four quarters of the globe to discuss an international problem; that the problem before the conference pressingly claimed solution for the welfare of mankind; that the conference would have to deal with one of those complications of Providence where God had created a plant containing in itself the elements to make it a real benefactor to humanity, but where man had by an abuse of that benefit transferred it into a scourge spreading economic ruin and moral as well as intellectual degradation; that the Netherlands Government had been anxious for the honor of seeing the conference meet on Netherlands soil, the mother country of vast colonies where the opium problem was of great actual importance, and that the interested governments responding to that appeal with an enthusiasm as graceful as it was flattering, he extended the welcome of the royal government to the conference as a tribute of gratitude.

At the conclusion of this address of welcome the first delegate of the Netherlands Government proposed for president of the conference Bishop Charles H. Brent, of the American delegation. This was seconded by the chiefs of the British and German delegations. With the unanimous consent of the assembly, Bishop Brent accepted the presidency and then delivered an address, partly personal, in which, besides thanking the conference for the honor of the presidency, he called attention to the work of the International Opium Commission, which convened in 1909, and then outlined the purpose for which the International Opium Conference had been assembled. On the termination of the presidential address, and with the consent of the conference, the president proposed the personnel of the secretary general’s office. His Excellency R. de Marees van Swinderen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Dutch Government, was elected honorary president. In the name of the conference the president dispatched the following message to Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands:

The representatives of the 12 nations assembled at The Hague for the International Opium Conference have the honor to lay at the feet of Your Royal Majesty the homage of their most respectful devotion and the expression of their gratitude for the gracious reception given to them in your residence.

At the second plenary session of the conference the president read the following telegram:

I am glad to see at The Hague the representatives of twelve States assembled for an International Opium Conference. Thanking you, Mr. President, for the feelings which you have interpreted, I express to you my good wishes for the humanitarian goal of the conference.

Wilhelmina.

Previous to the assembling of the conference, the Netherlands minister for foreign affairs had requested the American delegation to suggest a body of rules to govern the conference. At the second plenary session the conference proceeded to consider the tentative rules proposed by the American delegation, which were as follows:

Rule I. The International Opium Conference is composed of all the plenipotentiaries and technical delegates of the powers which have accepted the proposal of the United States Government and the invitation of the Government of the Queen of the Netherlands.

Rule II. After organizing its bureau, the conference shall appoint committees to study the questions submitted to it. The plenipotentiaries of the powers are free to register on the lists of these committees according to their own convenience, and to appoint technical delegates to take part therein.

Rule III. The conference shall appoint the chairman of each committee. The committees shall appoint their secretaries and reporters.

Rule IV. Each committee shall have the power to divide itself into subcommittees which shall organize their own bureau.

Rule V. A drafting committee for the purpose of coordinating the acts adopted by the conference and preparing them in their final form shall also be appointed by the conference at the beginning of its labors.

Rule VI. The members of the delegations are all authorized to take part in the deliberations at the plenary sessions of the conference as well as in the committees of which they form part. The members of one and the same delegation may mutually replace one another.

Rule VII. Every resolution or motion proposed for discussion by the conference must, as a general rule, be delivered in writing to the president, and be printed and distributed before being taken up for discussion.

Rule VIII. The public may be admitted to the plenary sessions of the conference when the conference itself so decides. Tickets shall be distributed for this purpose by the secretary general with the authorization of the president.

Rule IX. French shall be the official language of the conference, and the minutes shall be recorded in this language. However, other languages may be used in the conference.

Rule X. Special questions which have been already dealt with in the sessions of the committees can not be discussed in pleno by a member of a delegation in a speech of more than 10 minutes, unless the conference decides otherwise.

The rules as finally adopted by the conference follow:

Rule I. The International Opium Conference is composed of all the delegates of the powers which have accepted the proposal of the United States Government and the invitation of the Government of the Queen of the Netherlands.

Rule II. After organizing its bureau, the conference shall discuss in pleno the best method of drafting a program. The conference may, if necessary, appoint committees to study the questions submitted to it. The delegates of the powers are free to register on the lists of these committees as may appear convenient to them.

Rule III. Each committee shall appoint a chairman, secretary, and reporter.

Rule IV. A drafting committee for the purpose of coordinating the resolutions adopted by the conference and preparing them in their final form shall also be appointed by the conference at the beginning of its labors.

Rule V. All the delegates are authorized to take part in the deliberations at the plenary sessions of the conference as well as in the committees of which they form part. The members of one and the same delegation may mutually replace one another.

Rule VI. Members of the conference attending the meetings of committees of which they are not members, are not to be entitled to take part in the deliberations without special authorization of the chairman of the committees.

Rule VII. When a vote is taken, each delegation shall have only one vote. The vote shall be taken by roll call in the alphabetical order of the powers represented.

Rue VIII. Every resolution or motion proposed for discussion by the conference must, as a general rule, be delivered in writing to the president and be printed and distributed before being taken up for discussion.

Such proposals can not be voted on during the same session without the unanimous consent of all the delegations.

Rule IX. A committee of three delegates shall be appointed by the conference, to which shall be intrusted the duty of making any communications to the press.

Rule X. The minutes of the plenary sessions of the conference and of the committees shall give a succinct resume of the deliberations. A proof copy of them shall be delivered with as little delay as possible to the members of the conference; they need not be read at the beginning of the sessions, except by the request of a delegate.

Each delegate shall have a right to request the insertion in full of his official declarations according to the text delivered by him to the secretary and to make observations regarding the minutes.

The reports of the committees shall be printed and distributed before they are taken up for discussion.

Rule XI. French shall be the official language of the conference, and the minutes shall be recorded in this language.

However, other languages may be used in the conference. This rule shall not exclude the delivery of a translation to those delegates who desire to receive these documents in any other language.

Rule XII. Special questions which have been already dealt with in the sessions of the committees can not be discussed in pleno by a member of a delegation in a speech of more than 10 minutes, unless the conference decides otherwise.

Some discussion having arisen as to the program of the conference, the following statement was made on behalf of the American delegation:

That the United States had endeavored to secure from the interested Governments a definitive program for the conference, based on the tentative program contained in its circular proposal of September 1, 1909, and the additional proposals of Great Britain, but had failed to do so because several of the Governments had expressed a desire to reserve their views until the conference had assembled; that it was now apparent that a committee to be termed the program committe should be selected, and that this committee, composed of members from each delegation, should formulate a definitive program for the conference.

This view was concurred in by all of the delegates, and the following resolution, proposed by the American delegation, was unanimously adopted:

That a committee to be called the program committee be appointed, consisting of one representative from each delegation, and that it be authorized to prepare and submit to the conference a draft program for consideration, such program to be based upon the suggestions made on behalf of the United States of America as modified by the several powers which have made reservations thereon and upon the additional suggestions made on behalf of Great Britain and Italy; and that any further matters which the conference may subsequently decide to take into consideration shall similarly be first referred to the same committee.

Under this resolution a partial program was designed for the conference. Some delay and confusion which afterwards occurred would have been avoided if the conference had sent all new proposals to this committee to be properly formulated, instead of discussing them in plenary session, as was insisted upon by several of the delegations present.

Rule 8, as adopted by the conference, proved to be a cause for delay, and it was finally changed, on suggestion of the Japanese delegation, to read as follows:

Every resolution or motion proposed for discussion by the conference must, as a general rule, be delivered in writing to the president, and be printed and distributed before being taken up for discussion.

The resolution referred to in the present rule is one of such character as is destined to form the subject of international agreement and consequently to require a careful study beforehand; and does not include a resolution offered in the course of the sitting of the conference for transaction of business.

Such proposals can not be voted on during the same session, without the unanimous consent of all the delegations.

Under the rules, the deliberations of the conference were to be kept secret, or at least not communicated by members of the conference to the press except through the agency of the press committee of the conference. It may be observed that this rule was not fully respected, and at one of the plenary sessions the president called the attention of the conference to the fact. Some adverse comment has been made because the conference chose to deliberate in camera. It should be stated in this connection that the American delegation was one of those opposed to a day to day publication of the proceedings of the conference, for it recognized that the conference was dealing with the production and traffic in commodities the present and future value of which would be largely determined by the definitive conclusions of the conference. It was, therefore, the desire of the American as well as the other delegations that nothing should go forth during the sitting of the conference that would lead to a speculative activity in the production of and trade in opium, morphine, and cocaine. This proved to be a wise view, for the convention as signed at The Hague had no sooner been published than there was a large increase in the market price of the drugs, part of which was undoubtedly speculative.

A feature which did not lend itself to the expedition of the work of the conference was the adoption of French as the official language, as provided by Rule XI. At the International Opium Commission English was the official language because the most convenient to the majority of the commissions. A large majority of the delegates to the conference preferred to speak English in spite of Rule XI, and the French delegation expressed itself bilingually. The proceedings were taken down in English, then translated into French, and printed in English as well as French, for the convenience of those delegates who were not thoroughly acquainted with the latter language. This procedure often led to delay, and it was not until the last two or three sessions that the conference could approve of its transactions to that time. This incident alone illustrates the necessity of a conference proceeding by a language most convenient to the majority of the delegates, when it has to deal with questions like the opium and allied questions involving vast economic interests.

Rule IV provided for a comité de redaction, or editing committee—the original intention being that this committee should have referred to it the final action of the conference for edition. In practice, however, this committee took up the day-by-day work of the conference, and attempted to reduce it before the ultimate views of the conferees had been expressed. Before the conference had been long in session disputed questions were also referred to this committee rather than to the program committee, or to a conciliating committee, which, mooted by the American delegation, did not prove to be acceptable to the conference. Some confusion ensued, and it finally became necessary for the conference to add to the editing committee Mr. Asser, the eminent international jurisconsult. Mr. Asser’s services proved to be preeminently valuable, and before adjournment the conference unanimously expressed its debt of gratitude to him.

The American delegation fruitlessly strove to have the actual work of the conference done in commission and committee—a practice that had been followed with great success by the first and second International Peace Conferences, and by the more recent London Naval Conference. But the majority of the members of the conference insisted on thrashing out intricate and difficult economic and diplomatic questions in the plenary sessions. It is to be hoped that at future Hague conferences the plan of working details be by commissions and committees which shall report to the conference in plenary session for approval, and after such approval submit the reports to a small editing committee for final revision.

In spite of the difficulties attending a defective organization, it is to the great credit of all the representatives that they were animated by a lofty spirit and a determination that the conference should achieve the practical results which had been hoped of it. This hope was fruitful, although the convention, as signed, presents unique features as to ratification and effectuation.¹

The positive results of the conference may be stated as follows: Immediately after the adjournment of the International Opium Commission there were drafted in the Department of State two measures designed to control the foreign and interstate traffic in the United States of opium, morphine, and cocaine. When the conference assembled, it was soon seen that the principles contained in those measures were principles that could be readily applied by an international conference to the international traffic in the commodities under consideration. It may be said, therefore, that the International Opium Convention, as finally agreed upon, is based in part on well recognized principles, or proposed principles, of American interstate and navigation law. That part of the convention having to do with central governmental control of the drugs is based on the best European and Japanese practice, which on the whole is far in advance of the practice of our Federal Government.

A review of the convention will make this occult [sic]. Chapter I defines raw opium, and contains pledges on the part of the powers for the governance of the domestic and international traffic therein; Chapter II, of similar import, applies to opium prepared for smoking; and Chapter III to medicinal opium, morphine, and cocaine. Chapter IV, of five articles, is composed of pledges on the part of the treaty powers represented at the conference aimed to assist China in suppressing her great and vexatious opium problem. Chapter V is composed of article 20 as to possible laws on illegal possession of opium, and article 21 as to international exchange of documents and statistics. Chapter VI, of four articles, is composed of final provisions on supplementary signature, ratification, effectuation, and arbitration of the convention such as have never before been seen in an international document.

The first paragraph of Chapter I gives a practical commercial definition of raw opium, and fairly well conforms to the definitions of this substance as provided for many years in tariff legislation of the United States.

By Article I of the convention the contracting powers pledge themselves to enact effective laws or regulations to control the production and distribution of raw opium, unless their existing laws and regulations have already regulated the matter. That is, by this article the interested Governments must effectually bring under some sort of Government supervision, either by the monopoly system as practiced in India, or by authorization of persons, the production and distribution of raw opium.

By article 2 of the convention the contracting powers pledge themselves to restrict the number of cities, ports, and other places through which raw opium may be exported or imported. This article is in accord with American practice, for by virtue of the regulations issued by the Secretary of the Treasury under authority of the opium exclusion act approved February 9, 1909, the importation of opium into the United States is confined to 12 named ports. In practice, the effect of this article will be to secure a more strict governmental control of the importation and exportation of raw opium for medicinal purposes.

Article 3 is one of the most important articles of the convention in that it marks the formal adoption of a new principle of international commercial law, which, although in this case applies to opium, was recognized by all the delegates as applicable by future conferences to all commodities in international transit. By article 3 the contracting powers pledge themselves to take measures (a) to prevent the exportation of raw opium to countries which prohibit or may prohibit its entry, and (b) to control the exportation of raw opium to countries which regulate or may regulate its importation. This article conventionalizes resolution 4 of the International Opium Commission, which was pressed by the American delegation and finally adopted by that commission. China had for 50 years or more contended against the exportation of Indian opium to China, frankly avowing first by protest and then by legalization of the traffic that she was unable to wholly prevent the inroad of the drug. That contention had been scorned by some of the greatest statesmen and economists of their day, the generally accepted view being that it was the business of a country prohibiting the entry of any drug or commodity to prevent its importation, an exporting country not being greatly concerned with the destination of the exported article.

Upon the ratification by the various Governments of the present convention, by virtue of article 3, it will become an accepted principle of international commercial law that where a country has prohibited the importation of a drug or commodity, it is the business of a producing country to prevent the exportation of such products to the prohibiting country, or to prevent the exportation of such products unless the exporter conforms to the importation regulations of a regulating country. All the delegates recognized that this principle—though by this convention specifically applied to the opium traffic—could nevertheless be made applicable to any obnoxious or dangerous commodity in international trade. The adoption of this principle is of great credit to those opium-producing countries vitally affected by it. As concerns the United States and its possessions, in which no opium of any amount is produced, it is of great practical value, and when it becomes effective, will enable the preventive service of the customs to effectually exclude opium except for medicinal purposes, as provided for by the opium-exclusion act approved February 9, 1909, proposed legislation to strengthen that act, and Philippines legislation having the same object in view.

By article 4 of the convention the contracting powers pledge themselves to enact legislation or issue regulations providing that every package containing raw opium intended for export shall be marked so as to indicate its contents provided the shipment exceeds 5 kilograms. It was an object of the American delegation to secure that every package of opium for export should bear such marks. But as by Treasury regulation issued under the authority of the opium-exclusion act of February 9, 1909, delivery is made by the customs service of packages of opium containing not less than 100 pounds. It may be said that this article, as adopted by the conference, marks a decided advance on American practice.

By article 5 the contracting powers shall permit only duly authorized persons to import and export opium. In practice this will mean that all persons importing and exporting opium must eventually receive governmental authorization.

Chapter II of the convention is of striking importance, as it provides for the obliteration in a short time of the manufacture, exportation, importation, and use of opium for smoking purposes, and, in the meantime, for the confining of such manufacture and use to territories where such manufacture and use now obtain by totally forbidding the export of this form of opium to countries which have prohibited its entry and use or to countries which propose in the future to prohibit its entry and use.

The first paragraph of Chapter II defines the substance known as opium prepared for smoking, and by article 6 the contracting powers pledge themselves to take measures for the control, and ultimately effective suppression of the manufacture, domestic traffic in, and use of this form of opium.

When it is recalled that not 10 years ago there was a large and influential body of public officials and others here and abroad who saw no harm, economic, moral, or otherwise, to oriental peoples, in opium smoking, the importance of article 6 will be recognized. It marks the right-about of such opinion, and a recognition by the Governments and peoples concerned that the opium-smoking vice is generally degrading beyond all benefits to revenue that may accrue from the manufacture, importation, exportation, and use of this form of opium, and a determination on the part of those Governments and peoples to bring the vice to a speedy conclusion.

By article 7 the contracting powers pledge themselves to prohibit not only the importation of the smokable form of opium, but also its exportation—thus conforming to one of the principles embraced by the opium exclusion act of February 9, 1909, and the proposed amendment thereto.

By article 8 of the convention the contracting powers which are not yet ready to prohibit the exportation of opium prepared for smoking are pledged to restrict the number of places through which such opium may be exported; to prohibit its exportation to countries which now or hereafter may prohibit its importation; in the meantime to forbid the shipment of any prepared opium to a country that wishes to restrict its admission, unless the exporter complies with the regulations of the importing country; to take measures to have each parcel exported bear a special mark indicative of the nature of its contents, and allow none but specially authorized persons to export this pernicious form of the drug.

It might seem from a hasty reading of article 8 that a general international traffic in prepared opium is sanctioned. But such is not the case, for it should be borne in mind that where it had become necessary every country represented at the conference had prohibited the importation, and in some cases the exportation and use of this form of opium, and the colonies and possessions of all of the countries except Portugal had passed strict laws forbidding the importation and in most cases the exportation of prepared opium. The notable instance of this not having been done is in the Portuguese Colony of Macau on the China coast, where large quantities of this form of opium have been and are still manufactured both for use in the colony and for exportation—the object being colonial revenue. The great mass of this opium is intended for Chinese and other consumers in the United States, the Philippine Islands, Canada, and Mexico. By the opium exclusion act of February 9, 1909, the importation of this form of the drug into the United States is prohibited. The importation, manufacture, and use of it is prohibited in the Philippines.

A recently enacted Canadian statute not only forbids the importation of this form of the drug, but its manufacture, transshipment, or exportation. The Attorney General has held that under our opium-exclusion act of February 9, 1909, prepared opium may be imported into the United States for immediate transshipment by sea. Mexico has no law on the subject. The result is that the great mass of Macanise opium is brought to San Francisco and immediately transshipped by sea to western Mexican ports, from whence it, added to the direct Mexican import, is mostly smuggled into the United States across the Mexican border. Therefore, Portugal, at her colony of Macau, is the only country to-day which permits the export of this vicious form of opium, while the ports of all those countries parties to the convention are closed to it. The measures necessary to counteract and suppress this traffic to the United States are embodied in a proposed amendment to the opium-exclusion act of February 9, 1909, and will be adverted to later. It will be shown that if the Congress will enact the proposed amendment the international traffic in smoking opium will be practically wiped out.

Chapter III of the convention is an important one and proved to be the most difficult to formulate of all the chapters of the convention except that one containing the final provisions. The traffic in raw opium and opium prepared for smoking had been thoroughly studied by the International Opium Commission at Shanghai and by the various national commissions appointed by the interested Governments before that commission met, or which sat in the interval between the adjournment of the International Opium Commission and the assembling of the International Opium Conference. After the British Government made it a sine qua non that their participation in the International Opium Conference would depend upon the willingness of the interested Governments to pledge themselves to the same drastic legislation for the control of the production, manufacture, and trade in morphine and cocaine as in regard to opium, all the interested Governments willingly assented to this proposal when it was presented to them by the United States and the Netherlands Government on behalf of Great Britain. But a new factor was, nevertheless, injected into the problem and had to be met.

The necessity for the British proposals had become obvious to all the Governments interested in the Far East; for, beginning with the suppression of the opium vice in China and other far eastern countries, a determined, and one almost might say a calculated, effort was made by the manufacturers of morphine and cocaine to introduce these drugs in replacement of opium. Such efforts had largely succeeded, and to the world was presented the spectacle of many great Governments willingly sacrificing or providing for the sacrifice of an aggregate annual opium revenue in the neighborhood of $100,000,000, only to see the subjects of some of them pressing two other deadly drugs into the hands of those far eastern people who had heroically determined and were bent upon the abandonment of the opium vice. The British proposals in regard to morphine and cocaine were eminently sound, practical, and essential, and it became the duty of the International Opium Conference to provide against the abuse of morphine and cocaine similarly as regarded opium.

Chapter III of the convention is not by any means ideal, but represents a fair compromise of conflicting interests, and will no doubt be perfected by future conferences on the question. The first paragraph of Chapter III defines medicinal opium as opium that must contain not less than 10 per cent of morphine. This is superior to the tariff practice of the United States, which provides for the admission of medicinal opium containing not less than 9 per cent of morphine, but it confirms the standard for medicinal opium set by the International Pharmaceutical Conference of 1906, to which the United States is a party. Morphine, cocaine, and heroin are also defined by this paragraph.

By article 9, Chapter III, the contracting powers pledge themselves to enact laws or regulations so as to restrict the manufacture, sale, and use of morphine and cocaine and their respective salts to medicinal and legitimate uses only, unless their existing laws and regulations already cover the matter. This article appertains to national legislation only, and it will be pointed out later that the United States is the most backward of all the western nations and almost strikingly behind Japan in this phase of legislation.

Article 10, Chapter III, is weak in that the powers only pledge themselves “to use their best efforts to control or cause to be controlled” those who manufacture, import, sell, distribute, or export morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts and the buildings in which such persons carry on that industry or trade. The article then goes on to lay down the specific manner in which this object shall be accomplished.

There was a willingness on the part of all the delegations to formulate this article as strictly as the articles dealing with raw opium and opium prepared for smoking. But there were certain constitutional difficulties in the way—notably in the case of Germany—and article 10 was a compromise based on the fact that Germany has extremely strict and effective National and State laws governing the question dealt with by article 10. This is also true of several of the other European countries represented in the conference, and certainly of Japan.

By article 11 the contracting powers are to take measures to prohibit in their home trade any delivery of morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts to any but authorized persons, and by article 12 the importation of morphine and cocaine is restricted to persons authorized by the Government.

What was said of article 10 may be said of article 13, where the contracting powers do not pledge themselves to adopt, but only to use their best efforts to adopt or cause to be adopted measures to prevent the exportation of the named drugs from their home territories, possessions, colonies, and leased territories to the countries, possessions, colonies, and leased territories of the other contracting powers, and provides that each Government may communicate from time to time to the Governments of exporting countries the lists of persons to whom authorization or permits to import the named drugs shall have been granted. It was the hope of the American delegation that a distinct pledge be made by the interested Governments to enact legislation to prevent the exportation of these drugs except by authorized persons in one country to authorized importers in another. But it was not found possible to secure this.

By article 14 the contracting powers pledge themselves to apply their laws and regulations governing the manufacture, importation, sale, and exportation of morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts to medicinal opium and to all preparations of opium containing not more than 0.2 per cent of morphine or more than 0.1 per cent of cocaine and heroin, and also to any new derivative of morphine and cocaine, or any other alkaloid of opium which might be shown by general scientific research to occasion similar abuses and result in like noxious effects. Article 14 again represents a compromise. The American and several other delegations pressed to have the exceptions in this article as to percentages of morphine, cocaine, and heroin deleted, but failed to accomplish their purpose.

Chapter IV is composed of articles governing the opium traffic as it has obtained in the past between China and the nationals of several Governments represented. The interest of the United States in this chapter may be said to be important, because it contains principles for which the Chinese Government and people long contended, principles which were supported by the United States in its first treaty (1844) with China, and by Article II of the treaty of 1880 with China, which directly prohibit American citizens from entering into the Chinese foreign or coastwise traffic in opium. Chapter IV bears somewhat on the great concession made to China by Great Britain by the so-called 10-year agreement of 1907 and the modification of that agreement, signed at Peking May 8, 1911.

To make this clear a digression may now be made, for one of the purposes of this Government in initiating the international movement for consideration of the opium traffic in the Far East was to have the interested powers determine if the Indo-Chinese opium traffic and the collateral opium traffic to the Philippines could not be mitigated or abolished. Coincident with this purpose, the great leaders of the British Government, more particularly Sir Edward Grey, Lord Morley, Earl Crewe, and Lord Minto as Governor General of India, determined upon an agreement with China by which the Indo-Chinese opium, traffic should be abolished pari passu with the suppression of the production of opium in China. During 1907 an important agreement was arrived at by the British and Chinese Governments whereby the then annual exportation of Indian opium, 67,000 chests of about 140 pounds each, was to be reduced by 10 per cent per annum of the then Chinese import of the drug—51,000 chests—on condition that China suppressed her internal production of opium—about 300,000 chests per annum—at the same rate; that is, the total export of opium from India to all countries was to be reduced by 5,100 chests a year, and the Chinese production by about 30,000 chests, the object being the obliteration of the Indo-Chinese opium traffic and the internal production of opium in China in 10 years, beginning January 1, 1908. This agreement was entered into by both parties with sincerity and determination, and Lord Morley later intimated that should China outrun her part, the British Government would modify the agreement in her favor. There was a great and wide-spread doubt as to China’s ability to live up to the agreement of 1907. But by April, 1911, the Chinese Government was able to demonstrate to a British official appointed for that purpose that they had more than carried out their part of the agreement by completely suppressing the production of opium in certain of the Chinese provinces, and reducing the production in other provinces from 30 to 75 per cent.

It is worthy of note that the British official just referred to, Sir Alexander Hosie, a representative of the British Government at the International Opium Commission, reported that in the great Province of Szechuan, which, before the Anglo-Chinese Agreement of 1907, was producing more than 200,000 piculs (picul=133⅓ pounds) of opium, had completely suppressed its production at the time he reported, and that in the great Province of Yunnan, where there has been a production of 60,000 piculs, such production has been reduced 75 per cent. This had been accomplished by a loosely organized empire as the result of imperial edicts which, running through the land, received the moral support of a great majority of the Chinese people, their viceroys and governors of provinces, magistrates, and other officials.

Thereupon on May 8, 1911, the British Government agreed with China that there should be a modification of the agreement of 1907. The chief points of the new agreement are as follows:

1. The British Government recognizing the sincerity of the Chinese Government and their pronounced success in diminishing the production of opium in China during the three years from January 1, 1908, expressed their willingness to continue the arrangement for the unexpired period of seven years on the following conditions:

2. From the 1st of January, 1911, China shall diminish annually for seven years the production of opium in China in the same proportion as the annual export from India is diminished until total extinction of the Chinese production in 1917.

3. The Chinese Government having adopted a most rigorous policy for prohibiting the production and the transport of native opium produced in China, the British Government expressed their agreement with this policy and their willingness to give every assistance. With a view to facilitating the continuance of this work, His Majesty’s Government agree that the export of opium from India to China shall cease in less than seven years if clear proof is given of the complete suppression of the production of native opium in China.

4. His Majesty’s Government also agreed that Indian opium shall not be conveyed into any Province in China which can establish by clear evidence that it has effectively suppressed the cultivation and import of native opium produced in China.

5. During the period of the new agreement China shall permit His Majesty’s Government to obtain continuous evidence of the diminution of production of native opium by local inquiries and investigation conducted by one or more British officials, accompanied—if the Chinese Government so desire—by a Chinese official. The decision of these inspectors as to the extent of the production of native opium in China is to be accompanied [sic] by both parties to the agreement.

6. By the arrangement of 1907, the British Government agreed to permit China to dispatch an official to India to watch the opium sales, on condition that such official would have no power of interference. His Majesty’s Government now agree that the official so dispatched may be present at the packing, as well as at the sale of opium on the same conditions.

7. The Chinese Government undertakes to levy a uniform tax on all opium produced in the Chinese Empire, while the British Government consent to the increase in the present import duty on Indian opium to 350 taels per chest of 100 catties—such increase to take effect as soon as the Chinese Government levy an equivalent excise tax on all native opium.

8. With a view to assisting China in the suppression of opium, the British Government undertakes that from 1911, the Government of India will issue an export permit, with a consecutive number for each chest of Indian opium declared for shipment to or for consumption in China. During the year 1911 the number of permits so issued is not to exceed 30,000, and shall be progressively reduced annually by 5,100 during the remaining six years ending 1917. His Majesty’s Government undertakes that each chest of opium for which such permit has been granted shall be sealed by an official deputed by the Indian Government, in the presence of the Chinese official, if so requested.

9. Both parties agree that should it appear on subsequent experience desirable at any time during the unexpired portion of seven years to modify the agreement or any part thereof, it may be revised by mutual consent.

The agreement of 1911 has an annex providing for the release into China of some thousands of chests of opium held by traders. But the number of these chests is to be deducted from the gradually waning annual exportation from India, permitted by the agreement of 1907 and by the later agreement.

The agreement of 1907 between Great Britain and China, and the modification of that agreement of May 8, 1911, just outlined, is perhaps the finest example of the comity of nations recorded in modern times. After a controversy sustained for over 100 years both parties to the Indo-Chinese opium trade have now determined upon the gradual and effective suppression of that trade, and one of them—China—has agreed, and has so far most effectively carried out its agreement, to suppress an internal production of opium six times greater than the foreign traffic in the drug.

The acceptance of Chapter IV of the International Opium Convention by the treaty powers represented at the conference broadens this comity and will prevent any nation signatory to the convention taking unfair advantage of the special Anglo-Chinese agreement.

To continue an outline of the International Opium Convention, it may be stated that by Chapter V, composed of two articles, the contracting powers agree to examine the possibility of enacting laws or regulations making the illegal possession of the drugs named in the convention liable to penalties unless existing laws or regulations have already done so; and they are to communicate to each other through the Netherlands ministry for foreign affairs the text of the laws and the administrative regulations which concern matters aimed at by the convention; also statistical information with respect to that which concerns the traffics covered by the convention.

But especially attention should be directed to Chapter VI of the convention containing its final provisions. This chapter, composed of articles 22, 23, 24, and 25, marks a radical departure from final provisions as seen in any other international convention. It recognizes the futility of an attempt on the part of a minority of the powers of the world to bring under control the international traffic in anything which may be produced or trafficked in by the nationals of any State, and would seem to have irretrievably determined that future international conferences, such as the International Opium Conference, must be composed of and its convention to be effective signed by an overwhelming majority of the States directly or indirectly interested. Nearly all international conventions similar to the opium convention heretofore signed have been signed by delegates of a comparatively small number of the major and minor States, and generally speaking, their final provisions have permitted of the adhesion of States not represented at the conference, and have provided for ratification by the signatory powers in the shortest possible time—usually not to exceed two years.

The International Opium Conference had no sooner assembled than certain of the delegations pointed out that it would be useless for those States represented in the conference, and who were the largest producers and traders in opium, morphine, cocaine, etc., to agree to radical measures for the international control of these drugs, so long as it was open to the nationals of those States not represented at the conference to continue or take up the production of and traffic in them.

It was contended by the American delegation, and they were not alone in this contention, that the International Opium Conference was composed of nations representative of the civilized world; therefore that the delegates should pledge their Governments to the convention, and that the ordinary form of adhesion and ratification should be adopted as the final provisions of the convention. The American delegation was urged to this contention by the belief that those Governments interested and not represented at the conference would soon adhere to what had been signed, as they had many times adhered to other conventions to which they were not directly signatory. But this view was not favored by a majority of the delegations present, and the conference finally decided, as provided by article 22 of the convention, that the powers not represented at the conference shall be permitted to sign the present convention, and that to this end the Netherlands Government shall invite immediately after the convention shall have been signed all the powers of Europe and of America not represented at the conference (and then is enumerated the 34 other powers of Europe and America) to designate a delegate armed with the full powers necessary for signing of the convention at The Hague.

Article 22 proceeds to provide that the convention shall be furnished with the signatures of the other powers by means of a “Protocol of signature of powers not represented at the conference,” to be added after the signatures of the powers represented, and indicating the date of each signature; and that the Netherlands shall give a monthly notice to all the signatory powers of each supplementary signature.

Article 23 provides that after all the powers, as much for themselves as for their possessions, colonies, protectorates, and leased territories shall have signed the supplementary protocol of signatures, the Netherlands Government shall invite the powers to ratify the convention, together with the protocol of signature.

In case the signature of all the powers invited shall not have been secured by December 31, 1912, the Netherlands Government shall immediately invite all the powers who have signed by that date to designate delegates to proceed to The Hague to examine into the possibility of nevertheless depositing their ratifications. Ratifications shall then be executed within as short a time as possible, and shall be deposited at once at The Hague in the ministry for foreign affairs. It is also provided that the Netherlands Government shall give notice to all the powers who shall have ratified the convention, and of the date on which the last of such acts of ratification shall have been received.

By article 24, it is provided that the convention shall go into effect three months after the date on which the Netherlands Government gives notice of ratification to the powers, and again that all laws, regulations, and other measures provided for by the convention shall be drawn up not later than six months after the effectuation of the convention; it is further provided that these measures shall become operative subject to an agreement between the signatory powers at the instance of the Netherlands Government.

It is important to notice that the last paragraph of article 24 provides that in case questions arise relative to the ratification of the convention, for effectuation of the convention, or the effectuation of the laws, regulations, and measures which the convention involves, the Netherlands Government, if these questions shall not be decided by other means, shall invite all the signatory powers to designate delegates who shall assemble at The Hague to come to an immediate agreement on these questions. This is a novel feature, and as it will be readily seen practically provides for an arbitration at The Hague of any disputes growing out of the terms of the convention.

Article 25 of the convention is common form, and contains the usual provision for denunciation, for the deposit of the convention, and for the transmission of certified copies of it to the powers represented at the conference.

It may be stated that the novel final provisions of the convention were designed because of the difficulties connected with its Chapter III concerning morphine and cocaine. Chapters I and II concerning the production and traffic in raw and prepared opium and Chapter IV concerning China are composed of distinct pledges by the signatory powers made on questions be which there was little or no disagreement, and to which it was thought the powers not represented at the conference would readily adhere. Chapter III, on the other hand, deals with the question of the traffic in morphine and cocaine, on which there was disagreement considerable enough to compel certain of the delegations to hold that the chapter could not be effectuated by the signatory powers until it was subscribed to by the States not represented in the conference. Therefore the novel final provisions were designed because of the difficulties connected with the contents of Chapter III, and the ratification of the entire convention must now wait upon the necessary supplementary signatures of 34 other States.

Toward the end of the conference, and with the object of escaping this dilemma, the American delegation proposed that the convention should be broken in two parts—one to be composed of Chapters I, II, IV, and V, on the contents and strict pledges of which all the delegations were agreed, and to have as final articles the ordinary form of such articles in other conventions which provide for adhesion and ratification; the other convention to be composed of Chapters III and VI, the latter to contain the novel final articles as eventually adopted for the convention as it now stands. The American view, however, was not acceptable to a majority of the delegations, and therefore was not pressed.

In addition to the convention the delegates to the International Opium Conference signed a protocole de cloture, which contains the following views: That the conference is of the opinion that there is reason to draw the attention of the Universal Postal Union to the urgency of regulating the transmission by post of raw opium; to the necessity of regulating as far as possible the transmission by post of morphine and cocaine and their respective salts, and of the other substances contemplated by article 14 of the convention; to the necessity of prohibiting the transmission of prepared opium by post and of the advisability of the study of the question of the Indian hemp drugs from the statistical and scientific standpoint with a view to regulating their misuse should the necessity thereof make itself felt.

Generally speaking, it may be said that the convention is satisfactory, and illustrates that the most powerful nations in the world are now agreed that an evil such as the opium evil is never wholly national in its incidence, can never be suppressed by two nations alone—as was supposed to be the case in regard to the Indo-Chinese opium traffic—but that such an evil as it appears in one State is a concomitant or reflex of a similar evil in other States and is therefore international in its moral, humanitarian, economic, and diplomatic effect; that this being so, few evils can be eradicated by national action alone; and therefore only by the cooperation of all the States directly or indirectly interested can such an evil be mitigated or suppressed.

The convention marks a decided step in advance in the international movement for the suppression of the opium evil initiated by the United States. This movement at first was thought to concern only those countries of the Far East, or those western nations having territorial possessions in the Far East—five or six in number. But it has proceeded by way of a sober international commission of inquiry, composed of commissioners representing 13 nations, and by a conference composed of delegates with full powers representing 12 of these nations. These delegates having formulated and signed on behalf of their Governments a convention containing strict pledges for national legislation and international cooperation, the convention has now been presented to the remaining States of Europe and America—34 in number—for their signature.

But, quite apart from the contents of the convention itself, the international movement initiated by the United States has had a directly beneficial effect on the interested nations, for pending the assembling and action of the International Opium Commission, and while the diplomatic correspondence, aimed to secure The Hague conference, was in progress, many of the Governments concerned perfected domestic legislation for the suppression of the evils connected with opium and other narcotics, and took measures concerning the export of these drugs which were of international significance.

By the final provisions of the convention contained in Chapter VI, there will probably be a delay of a year before the convention can be ratified by the signatory powers and those powers who agree to sign the protocol of supplementary signature. That, however, is of little moment compared to the new international comity which has been established by the document, and the furtherance by it of new principles of international commercial law; while the deduction may be made from article 22 of the convention, that all future Hague conferences dealing with matters of general international commerce must be composed of an overwhelming majority of the nations.

There is, however, one aspect from which the convention may be viewed that should be disquieting to the Government and the people of the United States. It has just been stated that a reflex effect of the initiation by the United States of the international movement for the abatement of the opium evil took the form of improved domestic legislation in nearly all the countries concerned, of very drastic legislation in some, while one country at least—Great Britain—both by national and colonial law, effectuated resolution 4 of the International Opium Commission, as now embodied in article 3 of the International Opium Convention.

The one nation which has not been vitally affected by the international movement initiated by the United States is the United States itself, except in the Philippines. In the islands there are model antinarcotic laws; but, in spite of repeated urging by the Executive, the Congress so far has failed favorably to consider carefully drafted measures aimed to bring the continental United States into line and in accord with the principles now embraced by the International Opium Convention. A good beginning was made by the Federal Government, as may be seen by reference to the opium act approved February 9, 1909. This act is imperfect—the only effect which it could possibly have being to prevent the legal importation into the United States of the vicious form of opium known as opium prepared for smoking.

The Federal Government legalized the importation of the latter form of opium by the tariff act of 1860, and from that year until the opium-exclusion act became effective on April 1, 1909, there were legally imported into the United States over 4,000,000 pounds of this debasing form of the drug on which the Government collected a customs tax of nearly $27,000,000. In addition to the legal importation from 1860 onward, almost half as much again of this form of opium is supposed to have been smuggled into the United States. The evils, economic as well as moral, associated with the importation and use of this form of the drug can not be accurately computed, but what might be fairly called an underestimate of them was set forth in the report made on behalf of the American delegates to the International Opium Commission. (S. Doc. No. 377, 61st Cong., 2d sess.)

Just prior to the assembling of the International Opium Commission at Shanghai in February, 1909, it became apparent to the Department of State that the American Government had invited the cooperation of 12 nations to mitigate or suppress the opium evil as seen in Far Eastern countries, but had failed to recognize that it had legalized the importation of that form of the drug which had been most baneful in its effect on the people of China and of other Asiatic States. It was at once seen that it would be quite impossible for the American commissioners to appear at Shanghai until the Federal Government had taken some step toward a house cleaning. This was promptly done; in part by the passage of the so-called opium-exclusion act just after the International Commission had convened.

Animated by the example of the Federal Government, some 30 of the States have improved the intrastate, legislation aimed to confine narcotics to legitimate uses, but since February 9, 1909—the date of approval of the just mentioned act—no further decided congressional action has been taken, and the United States is now in the position, after having received the cordial cooperation of 12 powers, of being far behind in the movement to accomplish the purpose to which the American Government set itself in the autumn of 1906, when the first steps were taken to secure such cooperation.

There is no doubt that during the sittings of the International Opium Conference at The Hague the American delegation was placed in a somewhat embarrassing position, owing to the neglect of the Congress to pass legislation which had been urged upon it by the Executive, aimed to perfect the opium-exclusion act of February, 1909, and to bring under efficient control the export and interstate commerce in opium and other habit-forming drugs. Both formally and informally, it was pointed out to the American delegates at that conference that the other nations could have little hope for a final suppression of the opium and allied evils by international action so long as the United States, which had initiated the movement, failed to adopt the standard of national control in vogue in several European nations and in Japan.

Three bills with this purpose in view have been urged upon Congress since March, 1910. They are entitled as follows:

(a) A bill to amend an act entitled “An act to prohibit the importation and use of opium for other than medicinal purposes,” approved February 9, 1909;

(b) A bill to amend the act of October 1, 1890 (26 Stat, p. 1567) regulating the manufacture of smoking opium within the United States;

(c) A bill imposing a tax upon and regulating the production, manufacture, and distribution of certain habit-forming drugs.

A fourth bill has been designed to carry out the pledges of this Government as contained in resolutions 8 and 9 of the International Opium Commission and as now pledged by this Government by virtue of article 16 of the International Opium Convention. The title of that bill is as follows:

(d) A bill to regulate the practice of pharmacy and the sale of poisons in the consular districts of the United States in China.

The bills (a), (b), (c), were drafted after a wide consultation with all the interests likely to be affected (see S. Doc. No. 377, 61st Cong., 2d sess.). They have the general support of the pharmacy boards of the different States of the Union which are charged with the enforcement under the police power of the States, of the State acts for the regulation of pharmacy and the sale of narcotics; of the legislative committee of the National Retail Druggists’ Association; and of the legislative committee of the National Wholesale Druggists’ Association.

Since the adjournment of the International Opium Conference on the 23d of last January, these bills (a), (b), and (c), have been carefully revised by a joint committee composed of representatives of the Department of State and of the Treasury Department, and their speedy consideration has been urged upon the Congress by the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury. Finally, it may be stated that the President has commended to Congress, with his approval, the legislation in question:

• First. By a message transmitting from the Secretary of State a report on the International Opium Commission and on the opium problem as seen within the United States and its possessions (S. Doc. No. 377, 61st Cong., 2d sess.)¹;
• Second. In his annual message to the Congress, December 7, 1910;²
• Third. In a special message to the Congress, transmitting a report of the Secretary of State relative to the control of the opium traffic (S. Doc. No. 736, 61st Cong., 3d sess.)³; and
• Fourth. In his message on foreign relations, communicated to the two Houses of Congress December 7, 1911.⁴

It has been pointed out above that the United States had collected in customs duties, from 1860 until April 1, 1909, nearly $27,000,000 from the legalized importation of that vicious form of opium known as opium prepared for smoking, and that the use of this drug within the United States had caused an economic and moral degradation which could not be accurately computed.

Since June, 1908, the Congress, on the request of the Executive, has appropriated $45,000 to enable the Government to secure international and national action for the mitigation or suppression of the evils connected with opium. Such international action has been secured at an expense wholly at variance with the large revenue which accrued to the Government as the result of the lgal importation of prepared opium. This supply of $45,000 has been administered more than economically, and has enabled the Government to support for four years a commission composed from time to time of from one to three members, to send three delegates to an International Opium Commission in the Far East, and later three delegates and the necessary secretaries to an International Opium Conference at The Hague. Therefore, it is the mature conclusion of those who have, under the Secretary of State, been intrusted with the work connected with the national and international aspects of the opium question that the Congress, having financially supported the Executive in its successful effort to ameliorate the international aspects of a great evil by the cooperation of 12 States extending over a period of four years, that the Congress should speedily consider and pass the legislation so urgently needed to redeem the position of this Government, and to place it in the advanced line achieved in domestic legislation by a majority of the interested nations, and now formally agreed to by a conference composed of the delegates of 12 States representing the highest civilization of the West and East.

We have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servants,

Hamilton Weight

,
On behalf of the American Delegates.

Frederic L. Huidekoper.
Secretary to the American Delegation

.

1. Read May 31, 1912; referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed.
1. The Austro-Hungarian Government did not see its way clear to send delegates to the conference, but, nevertheless, informed this Government that it would observe the conference and its results with sympathy.
1. See above, p. 202.
1. Not printed in For. Rel.; see p. 182 for reference to it.
2. Should be 1909. See For. Rel. 1909. p. xix.
3. See p. 182.
4. For. Rel. 1911, p. xxiv.