Senate Doc. 157, God Cong., 1st sess.
Message from the President to the Congress transmitting a communication from the Secretary of State accompanied by a report from the American delegates to the Second International Opium Conference at The Hague, July 1–9, 1913.
[Read August 9, 1913; referred to Committee on Foreign Relations.]
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, accompanied with a report prepared by Mr. Hamilton Wright on behalf of the American delegates to the Second International Opium Conference, which met at The Hague on the 1st of July last and adjourned on the 9th of the same month.
The First Opium Conference assembled at The Hague on December 1, 1911, and adjourned on January 23, 1912. The convention formulated by this conference has since been signed by all of the Latin-American States and by a great majority of those of Europe, and all but three of the States that have signed have already agreed to proceed to the deposit of ratifications.
The results of the conferences should be regarded by the Government and people of the United States with great satisfaction. An international convention imposing the obligation to enact legislation strictly to confine the trade in opium and allied narcotics to medical purposes has been signed by all but 10 nations of the world, and there is reason to believe that by the end of the present year, through the action of the recent conference, all the nations of the world will have become signatories of the agreement.
It remains for the Congress to pass the necessary legislation to carry out the stipulations of the convention on the part of the United States. Such legislation has recently passed the House of Representatives without a dissenting vote, and I earnestly urge that this measure, to the adoption of which this Government is now pledged, be enacted as soon as possible during the present session of the Congress.