893.114 Narcotics/1267
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 24.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy of a note received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under date of June 29, 1935,84 transmitting a resolution passed by the Council of the League of Nations87 regarding the control of traffic in and manufacture of narcotic drugs by foreigners in China. The Ministry requests the cooperation of the American authorities in implementing the provisions of the resolution.
The Legation observes that Article XXXIII of the 1844 Treaty of Wanghia88 provides that American citizens trading in opium or [Page 740] other contraband “shall be subject to be dealt with by the Chinese Government, without being entitled to any countenance or protection from that of the United States,” and that the United States should take measures to prevent the abuse of its flag by nationals of other countries to screen violations of the laws of the Chinese Empire. Article XIV of the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin90 incorporated the same provision, and provided further that any vessel flying the American flag that might carry on a clandestine and fraudulent trade “at other ports of China not declared to be legal ([here follow Chinese characters]: more properly translated ‘not opened’—EC91), or along the coasts thereof”, should, with its cargo, be subject to confiscation “to” the Chinese Government. Article II of the 1880 Supplementary Treaty of Peking92 stipulates that the prohibition of the import of opium, by Chinese subjects into the United States and American citizens into China respectively, should extend to vessels owned or employed by the parties concerned, and that the prohibition “shall be enforced by appropriate legislation on the part of China and the United States”, without benefit of the favored-nation clause. Article XVI of the 1903 Commercial Treaty93 provided for the control of the import and manufacture of morphia by China, and Annex I of the same treaty referred to the fact that American citizens were already forbidden by treaty to “deal in or handle” opium.
These treaty provisions have been supplemented and implemented by the Hague Opium Convention,94 and by legislation of the American Congress in 1887 and subsequently. Evidently, the existing legal structure would constitute adequate authority for American officials to observe at least the spirit of the resolution mentioned above. In some respects, however, the existing law seems to go even farther than the League Council’s resolution would appear to contemplate, unless it is considered that the provisions of the Supplementary Treaty of 1880 constituted a re-definition of the manner in which anti-opium measures were to be applied, and the circumstances would seem to require that an interpretation be given to the aforementioned resolutions before they are made applicable to American citizens and vessels.
As pertinent to this general subject, it may be noted that the provisions of the resolution refer to “illicit” manufacture and traffic. Presumably such manufacture and traffic by Chinese as might have the National Government’s sanction would, therefore, not be subject [Page 741] to legal prosecution. That is, with the control of the trade in opium and other narcotic drugs in the hands of the Chairman of the Military Affairs Commission (Chiang Kai-shek)*, and the legal manufacture and traffic carried on by Chinese, there would not be an effective reciprocity of treatment accorded to Chinese and foreigners who might be engaged in what were essentially the same activities.
The Department’s instructions are respectfully requested in order that an appropriate reply may be made to the enclosed note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩
- See League of Nations, Official Journal, November 1934, pp. 1382 and 1384. See also note from the Secretary of State to the Secretary General of the League of Nations, October 21, 1935, post, p. 744.↩
- Signed July 3, 1844, Hunter Miller (ed.), Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, vol. 4, p. 559.↩
- Signed June 18, 1858, Miller, Treaties, vol. 7, p. 793.↩
- Oliver Edmund Clubb, Third Secretary of Legation in China.↩
- Signed November 17, 1880, William M. Malloy (ed.), Treaties, Conventions, etc., Between the United States of America and Other Powers, 1776–1909 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1910), vol. i, p. 239.↩
- Signed October 8, 1903, Foreign Relations, 1903, p. 91.↩
- International Opium Convention, signed at The Hague, January 23, 1912, Foreign Relations, 1912, p. 196.↩
- Cf., especially, Nanking’s despatch No. L-492 Diplomatic of October 29, 1934; Hankow’s despatch No. 126 of June 13, 1935; National Government’s mandates of June 5, 1935, abolishing the Commission for Opium-Suppression and appointing Chiang Kai-shek to fill the concurrent post of Superintendent General for Opium Suppression in China, National Government Gazette, No. 1760, June 6, 1935. [Footnote in the original; despatches under reference not printed.]↩