File No. 511.4a/796.
[Inclosure.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to Ambassador Reid.
Foreign Office,
London, September 17,
1910.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to inform
your excellency that I am now in a position to reply to the
invitation of the United States Government contained in your note of
the 23d of September last as to the representation of this country
in the international opium conference which it is proposed should be
held at The Hague for the purpose of conventionalizing the
resolutions of the Shanghai commission.
His Majesty’s Government desire, equally with the Government of the
United States, that effect should be given to the resolutions of the
Shanghai commission, and I have the honor to inform your excellency
that they will be ready, if satisfactory assurances can be given to
them on certain points, to take part at the proper time in a
conference for the furtherance of this object, although, in view of
the contents of the resolutions, it is doubtful whether there is
much scope for international action, and whether the ground for
fruitful discussion has as yet been cleared by the completion in
each country of the detailed inquiries and measures of reform which
the commission recommended. In particular His Majesty’s Government
desire to be assured that if they participate in a conference the
other participating powers are willing that the conference should
thoroughly and completely deal with the question of restricting the
manufacture, sale, and distribution of morphia, which forms the
subject of the fifth resolution of the Shanghai commission; and also
with the allied question of cocaine. In India, in China, and in
other Eastern countries the importation of morphia and cocaine from
occidental countries and the spread of morphia and the cocaine habit
is becoming an evil more serious and more deadly than opium smoking,
and this evil is certain to increase as the restrictions which are
now placed in India and in China on the production and use of opium
become more stringent. Indian and Chinese experience shows that the
morphia and the cocaine evil can not be efficiently controlled
except at the source—in the stages of manufacture and of
distribution in the manufacturing countries.
If recommendation 5 of the Shanghai commission is to be treated
effectively in this sense in the proposed international conference
it will be necessary that the participating powers should have
definitely considered beforehand the question whether they are
prepared to impose severe restrictions on the manufacture of and
trade in morphia and cocaine in their respective countries. His
Majesty’s Government suggest that the United States Government
should ascertain from the several powers whether, if a conference is
held, they are prepared to discuss in it the morphia and cocaine
question from this point of view, and should invite them to
undertake, with a view to such discussion, the indispensable
preliminary inquiries into trade conditions and to collect
statistics of manufacture and export. His Majesty’s Government on
their part are now setting on foot the necessary inquiries in this
country.
It may be desirable to ascertain from the several powers, should they
agree to undertake similar investigations in their respective
countries, what length of time will be required for the purpose, as
information on this point will indicate approximately the date when
the conference may be usefully held.
Until satisfactory assurances in this respect are obtained from the
powers and the preliminary inquiries have been completed, His
Majesty’s Government consider that the convening of a conference
would be premature. As regards the subjects for discussion other
than morphia and cocaine, in the event of a conference being
convened, His Majesty’s Government consider that they should be
those indicated in the recommendations
[Page 313]
of the Shanghai commission, and they must take
exception to the items numbered (h), (l), (m), and (n), of the tentative program proposed in the
circular letter of the United States Government. These they are not
prepared to discuss, and in particular they consider that the
following matters should be excluded from consideration by the
conference:
- 1.
- The arrangement made between His Majesty’s Government and
China respecting the progressive restriction of opium
imports and of opium production in China.
- 2.
- Other existing treaties between the two countries.
I should also draw your excellency’s attention to the fact that in
item (a) of the program the epithet “uniform
“is opposed to the express finding of the Shanghai commission. The
commission recognized that the production, manufacture, and
distribution of opium could not be subjected to uniform laws, and it
appears undesirable to His Majesty’s Government, in view of this
finding, that the question should again be raised.
I am to express the hope that you will, in communicating the purport
of these observations to your Government, add the assurance that if
the conditions which His Majesty’s Government have thought it
necessary to propose as indispensable to the success of a conference
can be complied with, they will be glad to cooperate with the
project of conventionalizing the resolutions of the Shanghai
commission by means of an international conference.
