File No. 511. 4A1/927.
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.
Washington, December 9, 1910.
Sir: The department acknowledges the receipt of your cablegram of the 2d instant, in which you state that the foreign office has informed you that in order to obtain the necessary data in regard to morphine and cocaine it has been found necessary to introduce a compulsory declaration in Great Britain with regard to the quantities and value of imports and exports of the drugs; that the compulsory declaration will go into operation on January 1 next, and that consequently several months must elapse before the desired statistics can be gathered and considered representative of the ordinary course of trade.
Those Governments interested in the forthcoming opium conference have been informed of the action taken by the British Government in accordance with its proposals that there should be a preliminary study of the manufacture and trade in morphine and cocaine before the conference.
I am, sir, etc.,