File No. 774/23–27.

The Secretary of State to Minister Rockhill.

No. 256.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your interesting dispatch No. 497, of the 4th ultimo, on the subject of the suppression of the opium trade in China.

The department approves your statement to the Wai-wu Pu, that before asking the United States to agree to the immediate enforcement of the provisions of the treaty of October 8, 1903, China should herself do all she is required to do under Article XVI of the treaty.

I am, etc.,

Elihu Root.