File No. 811.114/31a.
[Untitled]
Washington, March 11, 1914.
To the Diplomatic Officers of the United States.
Gentlemen: Section 6 of the Act of Congress approved January 17, 1914, entitled “An Act to amend an Act entitled ‘An Act to prohibit the importation and use of opium for other than medicinal purposes,’ approved February ninth, nineteen hundred and nine,” provides as follows:
Sec. 6. That hereafter it shall be unlawful for any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to export or cause to be exported from the United States, or from territory under its control or jurisdiction, or from countries in which the United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction, any opium or cocaine, or any salt, derivative, or preparation of opium or cocaine, to any other country: Provided, That opium or cocaine, and salts, derivatives, or preparations thereof, except smoking opium or opium prepared for smoking, the exportation of which is hereby absolutely prohibited, may be exported to countries regulating their entry under such regulations as are prescribed by such country for the importation thereof into such country, such regulations to be promulgated from time to time by the Secretary of State of the United States.
The Secretary of State shall request all foreign Governments to communicate through the diplomatic channels copies of laws and regulations promulgated in their respective countries which prohibit or regulate the importation of the aforesaid drugs, and when received advise The Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce thereof; whereupon the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of Commerce shall make and publish all proper regulations for carrying the provisions of this section into effect.
In conformity with the second paragraph of the section quoted you are instructed to request the Government to which you are respectively accredited to furnish you with three copies of its laws and regulations which prohibit or regulate the importation into its territory of any opium or cocaine, or any salt, derivative, or preparation of opium or cocaine.
The Department desires to receive these as early as possible.
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