File No. 774/407.
The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.
Washington, November 20, 1908.
(Mr. Bacon, acknowledging telegram 319, says that there has apparently been some misunderstanding on the part of the British foreign office, and that reference to department’s telegram of November 6 will show that proposal embodied therein is addition rather than substitute for clause 3 in department’s telegram of May 7. No clause has been superseded. Says that lest there be doubt regarding the matter, he may inform Sir Edward Grey that opium commissioners have been instructed (1) to devise means to limit the use of opium in possessions of United States; (2) to ascertain best means of suppressing opium traffic, if such now exists among the nationals of this Government in the Far East; (3) to be in position so that when commission meets in Shanghai representatives may be prepared to cooperate with the representatives of participating powers and with them to offer definite suggestions of measures which these Governments may adopt for the gradual suppression of opium cultivation, traffic, and use within their eastern possessions, thus assisting China in her purpose of eradicating the evil from her Empire; (4) to be able to inform the Whole commission, when it assembles, regarding regulations and restrictions in force at present in the United States and to formulate and discuss proposals for amending such regulations in points in which they may be found in the course of the joint investigation to affect the production, commerce, use, and disadvantages of opium in the Far East.)