File No. 511. 4A1/918.
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.
Washington, November 25, 1910.
Sir: The department acknowledges the receipt of your No. 1463 of the 5th instant, in which, referring to your No. 1426, of the 19th of September last, relative to the proposed international opium conference to be held at The Hague, you transmit in duplicate, [Page 323] copies of a note received from the foreign office dated November 2, in which inquiry is made whether steps have been taken to obtain the necessary assurances from the other participating powers regarding their willingness to restrict the manufacture, distribution, and sale of morphine and cocaine, since the British Government made its consent absolutely dependent on these assurances having first been obtained from the Governments concerned.
This Government highly appreciates the value of the British proposals in regard to the manufacture, distribution, and sale of morphia and cocaine, and is in full sympathy with them. The United States has almost completed its study of the subjects, and, anticipating the action of the conference, the department has had drafted several measures which are now before the appropriate committees of the Congress. These measures, if passed and approved, will control the importation, exportation, and manufacture of the drugs. As the Netherlands Government has courteously consented to occupy itself with the actual assemblings of the conference and had already tendered a general invitation to the interested Governments to meet at The Hague, the department instructed Mr. Beaupré to lay the British proposals before that Government with the object that it should ascertain the views of the interested powers when arranging for the date of the conference.
You were further informed by a cable of the 12th instant that the Netherlands Government had issued a supplementary note to the interested powers embodying the British proposals. Probably by this time the Netherlands Government has instituted the necessary inquiries of the interested Governments in regard to morphia and cocaine, for the department has just learned from the Japanese Government that it has no objection to the substance of the British proposals, but that it prefers to reserve its views in regard to them to a later date.
It is the understanding of the department that China has completed her position in regard to the manufacture and distribution of morphia in that she has pledged herself to control the use of morphia in China and to prevent its manufacture by Article XI of the British-Chinese commercial treaty of 1902 and by Article XVI of the commercial treaty of 1903 between China and the United States, both articles having been assented to by all the treaty powers. Also that China has pledged herself in regard to the manufacture and distribution of cocaine, in that we were informed on February 19 last by the legation at Peking that China desired to apply to the importation of cocaine restrictions exactly similar to those now in force with respect to morphine; that the matter had been discussed by the diplomatic corps, and while it seemed to be the consensus of opinion that this request of the Chinese Government should be complied with, it was thought necessary to have the express approval of the Governments concerned, which all the ministers had promised to ask. On the 28th of March last this Government informed the Chinese Government that it approved of the proposed measures for the prohibition, except under restrictions similar to those enforced with respect to morphine, of all importation of cocaine into China.
The department expects that the Netherlands Government will soon give notification to the effect that the other Governments which are to take part in the forthcoming opium conference assent to the [Page 324] British proposals in regard to morphine and cocaine, since they are in conformity with the spirit of resolution 5 unanimously adopted by the International Opium Commission. Should the department learn anything further touching the views of the other interested Governments in regard to the British proposals, you will be promptly informed.
I am, etc.,