511.4A6/216
The Secretary of State to President Hoover
The President: An invitation has been extended to the Government of the United States by the Secretary General of the League of Nations on behalf of the Council of the League of Nations,79 to send one or more delegates, invested with the necessary plenary powers, to represent it at the Conference on the Limitation of the Manufacture of Drugs (covered by Article 4 (b), (c) and (g) of the Opium Convention of Geneva80) which will be held at Geneva on May 27, 1931.
The invitation from the Secretary General of the League of Nations stated that invitations were being sent only to the Governments of the manufacturing countries and to certain consuming countries, but a resolution adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations in September, 1930, provided that invitations should be sent to all States, members or non-members of the League of Nations.
Although the resolution of the Assembly of the League of Nations adopted at its session in September, 1929, referred only to a limitation of the manufacture of the drugs covered by Article 4 (b), (c) and (g) of the Opium Convention of Geneva, the discussions concerning the Conference in the League Opium Advisory Committee in January and February, 1930, and during the Plenary Conference held in London from October 24 [27] to November 11, 1930, on the invitation of the British Government, indicate that it may be possible to bring about the discussion by the Conference of certain drugs outside of the above mentioned categories which, in the opinion of this and of certain other Governments, should be covered by an international agreement concerning the limitation of manufacture of narcotic drugs.
This Government has long recognized the importance of the subject to be discussed at the conference, both from the point of view of the protection of the people of the United States, and as a matter of world humanitarian interest.
The Government of the United States has realized the impossibility of preventing by its own efforts the smuggling into its territory of narcotic drugs manufactured abroad in excessive quantities, on account of their high value and small bulk, which make their detection impossible without investigations which would unduly interfere with legitimate commerce. It has been the aim of this Government to bring about [Page 651] international cooperation in dealing with this problem and to persuade other governments to limit the amount of narcotic drugs manufactured to the amounts required for medical and scientific purposes. To this end it took the initiative in bringing about the International Opium Commission at Shanghai in 190981 and the conference at The Hague,82 which resulted in the Hague Opium Convention of 1912,83 the first international agreement on this matter. This Government participated in the second Geneva Conference of 1924,84 under the authorization contained in the joint resolution of Congress of May 15, 1924, but has not signed the resulting convention because it was not considered to be a sufficient advance over the Hague Convention of 1912.
It has furthermore been and continues to be the policy of this Government, both in regard to its domestic situation and internationally in cooperation with the other Powers, to seek the enactment of pharmacy laws and regulations which will limit the manufacture, the sale and the use of morphine, cocaine and their respective salts to the medical needs of the world. (Cf. Hague Convention, Chapter III, Article 9.) With this in view, this Government on October 14, 1926, addressed an instruction85 to the American diplomatic representatives in the countries signatory to the Hague Convention directing them to bring to the attention of those Governments the steps which have been taken for the control of the manufacture of and traffic in narcotic drugs within the territorial limits of the United States pursuant to the requirements of the Hague Convention and to point out the need for similar control in other countries, particularly those producing opium derivatives, if the illicit international traffic in these drugs is to be eradicated.
As a further means of meeting this situation and because of the increasing evidence that illicit narcotics found within the territorial limits of the United States by the preventive forces of this Government originated from sources outside of the territorial limits of the United States, the Department, in December, 1927, directed its representatives at various capitals to arrange with the governments concerned for the direct exchange of information, relating to persons and organizations engaged in the illicit international traffic in narcotic drugs, between the officers directly concerned with the control of that traffic in the United States and the corresponding officers in such foreign Governments. Arrangements have already been effected for such a direct exchange of information with the Governments of nineteen countries.
[Page 652]It is of interest to note, in this connection, a recent case indicative of the extent of the efforts to smuggle narcotic drugs into the United States. On December 15, 1930, there was seized on the Steamship Alesia at New York 17,500 ounces of morphine concealed in twenty-five cases manifested as furs, consigned to order at New York.
In view of the importance of this matter to the Government of the United States, I have the honor to recommend that the Congress be requested to enact legislation authorizing an appropriation of $35,000 for the expenses of participation by the United States in the Conference on the Limitation of Manufacture of Narcotic Drugs to be held at Geneva, Switzerland, on May 27, 1931.
As a matter of convenience a tentative draft of the desired legislation is enclosed herewith.87
Respectfully submitted,
- League of Nations circular letter of June 14, 1930 (C.L.116.1930.XI); not printed.↩
- Signed February 19, 1925; League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. lxxxi, p. 317.↩
- See Department’s instructions of January 31, 1907, Foreign Relations, 1907, pt. 1, p. 144. For correspondence concerning the Shanghai inquiry, see ibid., 1909, pp. 99 ff.↩
- See ibid., 1912, pp. 182 ff.↩
- Signed January 23, 1912, ibid., p. 196.↩
- See ibid., 1924, vol. i, pp. 89 ff.↩
- Ibid., 1926, vol. i, p. 250.↩
- For President Hoover’s message to Congress on January 21, 1931, and the draft of a joint resolution, see S. Doc. 256, 71st Cong., 3d sess.↩