File No. 774/362.
The Secretary of State to Minister King.
Washington , October 22, 1908 .
Sir: The department acknowledges the legation’s telegram, dated October 20, reporting that the Siamese Government has accepted the invitation of this Government to participate in the International Opium Commission, which is to meet at Shanghai on January 1, 1909.
You will express to the minister for foreign affairs the gratification of the Government of the United States that the proposal for joint action regarding opium in the Far East has met with a favorable response from the Government of Siam. You may also inform the minister for foreign affairs that the President has appointed as commissioners on the part of the United States the Eight Rev, Charles H. Brent, missionary bishop of the Philippine Islands; Dr. Hamilton Wright, eminent in medical and scientific research; and Dr. Charles H. Tenney, Chinese secretary of the American legation at Peking, and that Congress has made ample appropriation for the purpose; also that the commissioners of the United States are investigating in this country the subjects of the imports of crude opium, its derivatives, and chandu; the international consumption of crude opium, licit and illicit; the internal manufacture and use of chandu; the manufacture of morphia and other opium derivatives; the use of the crude drug and preparations of the same; the use of morphine and other derivatives, licit and illicit; the extent of poppy cultivation; and the Federal statutes regarding importation and municipal laws and ordinances governing the use of opium and its derivatives.
You will report the names and ranks of the commissioners whom the Government of Siam proposes to appoint, and at the earliest possible date their proposed plan of investigation in preparation for the general meeting at Shanghai.
I am, etc.,