Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 7, 1909

File No. 774/651A.

The Acting Secretary of State to the diplomatic officers of the United States accredited to the Governments which were represented in the Shanghai International Opium Commission.

Department of State,
Washington, September 1, 1909.

Gentlemen: The Government of the United States has learned with satisfaction the results achieved by the International Opium Commission, which concluded its labors at Shanghai on February 26, 1909. In the opinion of the leaders of the antiopium movement much has been accomplished by the commission; and by both the Government and people of the United States it is recognized that the results are largely due to the generous spirit in which the representatives of the Governments concerned approached the subject.

The Government of the United States appreciates the magnitude of the opium problem and the serious financial interests involved in the production of and trade in the drug, and it is deeply impressed by the friendly cooperation of the powers financially interested and the desire as expressed by the resolutions of the commission that the opium evil should be eradicated not only from Far Eastern countries, but also from their home territories and possessions in other parts of the world.

During the investigation of the opium problem in the United States by the American commissioners, it became apparent that, quite apart from the question as it affects the Philippine Islands, a serious opium evil obtained in the United States itself; that this was primarily due to the large Chinese population in the country, to the intimate commercial intercourse with the Orient, and to the unrestricted importation of opium and manufacture of morphia.

Thus, the interest of the United States in the opium problem is material as well as humanitarian, and, as the result of the investigations made before the meeting of the commission at Shanghai, the Congress of the United States passed the following legislation:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That after the first day of April, nineteen hundred and nine, it shall be unlawful to import into the United States opium in any form or any preparation or derivative thereof: Provided, That opium and preparations and derivatives thereof, other than smoking opium or opium prepared for smoking, may be imported for medicinal purposes only, under regulations which the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to prescribe, and when so imported shall be subject to the duties which are now or may hereafter be imposed by law.

Sec. 2. That if any person shall fraudulently or knowingly import or bring into the United States, or assist in so doing, any opium or any preparation or derivative thereof contrary to law, or shall receive, conceal, buy, sell, or in any manner facilitate the transportation, concealment, or sale of such opium or preparation or derivative thereof after importation, knowing the same to have been imported contrary to law, such opium or preparation or derivative thereof shall be forfeited and shall be destroyed, and the offender shall be fined in any sum not exceeding five thousand dollars nor less than fifty dollars, or by imprisonment for any time not exceeding two years, or both. Whenever, on trial for a violation of this section, the defendant is shown to have, or to have had, possession of such opium or preparation or derivative thereof, such possession shall be deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction unless the defendant shall explain the possession to the satisfaction of the jury.

It will be observed that this act excludes from the United States opium except for medicinal purposes. It is not unlikely that the Government of the United States may at an early date enact further legislation to place the entire manufacture and distribution of medicinal opium, its derivatives, and preparations and other habit-forming drugs, like cocaine and Indian hemp, under Federal supervision and control.

The United States, however, is not itself an opium-producing country, and in order to make its laws fully effective, and stamp out the evil, there should be control of the amount of opium shipped to this country. To this end it will be necessary to secure international cooperation and the sympathy of opium-producing countries.

In the original dispatches which led to the calling of the commission, the American Government considered the time had come to decide whether the consequences of the opium trade and habit were not such that the civilized powers should take measures in common to control the trade and eradicate the habit, and the suggestion was made that there be an international conference to consider the question in its international bearing, and if feasible to draft an international agreement.

As, however, the Government of Great Britain intimated that procedure by way of commission seemed better adapted than a conference for an investigation of the facts of the trade and the consequences of the habit preliminary to any action by the powers jointly and severally, and inasmuch as the material placed before the conference might be insufficient to arrive at definite recommendations, the United States modified its original attitude. Therefore, in the latter part of 1906, the Government of the United States approached several of he powers more particularly interested in the question for an international commission of inquiry to study the scientific, economic, moral, and legislative aspects of the opium problem.

It was finally agreed by the Governments concerned that a commission should meet at Shanghai on the 1st of January, 1909. The commission met on February 1, having been postponed out of respect to the late Emperor and Dowager Empress of China, and adjourned on February 26, 1909. After a thorough and searching study of the opium question in all its bearings, the commission adopted the following resolutions:

Be it resolved: 1. That the International Opium Commission recognizes the unswerving sincerity of the Government of China in their efforts to eradicate the production and consumption of opium throughout the Empire; the increasing body of public opinion among their own subjects by which these efforts are being supported; and the real though unequal progress already made in a task which is one of the greatest magnitude.

2. That in view of the action taken by the Government of China in suppressing the practice of opium smoking, and by other Governments to the same end, the International Opium Commission recommends that each delegation concerned move its own Government to take measures for the gradual suppression of the practice of opium smoking in its own territories and possessions, with due regard to the varying circumstances of each country concerned.

3. That the International Opium Commission finds that the use of opium in any form otherwise than for medical purposes is held by almost every participating country to be a matter for prohibition or for careful regulation; and that each country in the administration of its system of regulation purports to be aiming, as opportunity offers, at progressively increasing stringency. In recording these conclusions the International Opium Commission recognizes the wide variations between the conditions prevailing in the different countries, but it would urge on the attention of the Governments concerned the desirability of a reexamination of their systems of regulation in the light of the experience of other countries dealing with the same problem.

4. That the International Opium Commission finds that each Government represented has strict laws which are aimed directly or indirectly to prevent the smuggling of opium, its alkaloids, derivatives, and preparations, into their respective territories; in the judgment of the International Opium Commission it is also the duty of all countries to adopt reasonable measures to prevent at ports of departure the shipment of opium, its alkaloids, derivatives, and preparations, to any country which prohibits the entry of any opium, its alkaloids, derivatives, and preparations.

5. That the International Opium Commission finds that the unrestricted manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphine already constitute a grave danger, and that the morphine habit shows signs of spreading. The International Opium Commission therefore desires to urge strongly on all Governments that it is highly important that drastic measures should be taken by each Government in its own territories and possessions to control the manufacture, sale, and distribution of this drug, and also of such other derivatives of opium as may appear on scientific inquiry to be liable to similar abuse and productive of like ill effects.

6. That as the International Opium Commission is not constituted in such a manner as to permit the investigation from a scientific point of view of anti-opium remedies and of the properties and effects of opium and its products, but deems such investigation to be of the highest importance, the International Opium Commission desires that each delegation shall recommend this branch of the subject to its own Government for such action as that Government may think necessary.

7. That the International Opium Commission strongly urges all Governments possessing concessions or settlements in China, which have not yet taken effective action toward the closing of opium divans in the said concessions and settlements, to take steps to that end, as soon as they may deem it possible, on the lines already adopted by several Governments.

8. That that International Opium Commission recommends strongly that each delegation move its Government to enter into negotiations with the Chinese Government with a view to effective and prompt measures being taken in the various foreign concessions and settlements in China for the prohibition of the trade and manufacture of such antiopium remedies as contain opium or its derivaties.

9. That the International Opium Commission recommends that each delegation move its Government to apply its pharmacy laws to its subjects in the consular districts, concessions, and settlements in China.

Although no formal declaration was made, it was a matter of discussion and was recognized by the commission as a whole that the foregoing resolutions, however important morally, would fail to satisfy enlightened public opinion unless by subsequent agreement of the powers they and the minor questions involved in them were incorporated in an international convention.

Impressed by the gravity of the opium problem and the desirability of divesting it of local and unwise agitation, as well as the necessity of maintaining it upon the basis of fact as determined by the Shanghai Commission, the United States deems it important that international effect and sanction be given to the resolutions of the International Opium Commission, and to this end proposes that an international conference be held at a convenient date at The Hague or elsewhere, composed of one or more delegates of each of the participating powers, and that the delegates should have full powers to conventionalize the resolutions adopted at Shanghai and their necessary consequences. The Government of the United States suggests as a tentative program, based upon the resolutions and proceedings of the International Commission, the following:

(a) The advisability of uniform national laws and regulations to control the production, manufacture, and distribution of opium, its derivatives and preparations;

(b) The advisability of restricting the number of ports through which opium may be shipped by opium-producing countries;

(c) The means to be taken to prevent at the port of departure the shipment of opium, its derivatives and preparations, to countries that prohibit or wish to prohibit or control their entry;

(d) The advisability of reciprocal notification of the amount of opium, its derivatives and preparations, shipped from one country to another.

(e) Regulation by the Universal Postal Union of the transmission of opium, its derivatives and preparations, through the mails;

(f) The restriction or control of the cultivation of the poppy so that the production of opium will not be undertaken by countries which at present do not produce it, to compensate for the reduction being made in British India and China;

(g) The application of the pharmacy laws of the Governments concerned to the subjects in the consular districts, concessions, and settlements in China;

(h) The propriety of restudying treaty obligations and international agreements under which the opium traffic is at present conducted;

(i) The advisability of uniform provisions of penal laws concerning offenses against any agreements that the powers may make in regard to opium production and traffic;

(j) The advisability of uniform marks of identification of packages containing opium in international transit;

(k) The advisability of permits to be granted to exporters of opium, its derivatives and preparations;

(l) The advisability of reciprocal right of search of vessels suspected of carrying contraband opium;

(m) The advisability of measures to prevent the unlawful use of a flag by vessels engaged in the opium traffic;

(n) The advisability of an international commission to be intrusted with the carrying out of any international agreement concluded.

Without attempting to prescribe the scope of the conference, or to present a program which may not be varied nor enlarged, the Government of the United States believes that the foregoing suggestions might properly serve as the basis, at least, for preliminary discussion, and invites a formal expression of opinion not merely upon the topics outlined, but an enumeration of other aspects of the opium problem which may seem of peculiar importance to any participating nation. The United States considers it important that an exchange of views take place as early as possible before the meeting of the conference.

If the program, as outlined, meets with the approval of the Government to which you are accredited, it will be highly serviceable that on some subsequent date—for example, on or before December 1 of the current year—the participating Governments exchange their views, together with such recommendations and observations as occur to them. This course will not only facilitate the work of the conference and materially shorten its labors, but enable the Government of the United States to prepare in advance a definitive program based upon the suggestions and views of the participating Governments.

You are therefore directed to transmit a copy of this instruction to the minister for foreign affairs of the Government to which you are accredited, and at the same time to request that a delegate or delegates be appointed, furnished with full powers, to negotiate and conclude an agreement, provided that the Government to which you are accredited is favorable to the idea of an international conference for the suppression of the opium evil, as the result of the inquiries of the Shanghai Commission.

I am, etc.,

Alvey A. Adee.