500.C 1197/885

Report by the American Representative at the Twentieth Session of the Opium Advisory Committee of the League of Nations (Fuller)97

[Extract]

During the discussion on the proposed survey of cooperation, the American representative made the following statement:

“It will be recalled that, in March, 1934, the American Government reserved its opinion as to the expediency and desirability of the proposed commission to inquire into cooperation between Chinese and foreign authorities and into the manufacture in China of opium derivatives pending an expression by the Chinese Government of its views in regard to the proposal to set up such a commission.

“At the Nineteenth (Autumn, 1934) Session of the Opium Advisory Committee, the Chinese representative (as will be seen from League document No. O. C. 1579 (1)), stated that his Government would agree to such a survey of cooperation only, but in a limited and restricted scope, leaving consideration of an investigation of clandestine manufacture in general to the future.

“The agreement of the Chinese Government was submitted orally by the Chinese representative on the Opium Advisory Committee and in a form that lacked precision. I waited to receive a formal, precise, written statement of the Chinese Government’s counter proposal before asking for instructions as to the attitude which I should assume when the question comes before the Opium Advisory Committee. The most definite statement yet before the Department of State is that contained in League document No. O. C. 1579 (1)—the report of the Sub-Committee. Nevertheless, I finally asked for instructions and am prepared to state the American view insofar as can be done on the basis of what we have before us.

“It will be recalled that, on several occasions in the Opium Advisory Committee, I have expressed the opinion that the investigation of clandestine manufacture in China—and anywhere else—is essentially a police matter which cannot be handled successfully by an investigating commission. I continue to hold that opinion. The apparent refusal of the Chinese Government to agree to the investigation by a commission of clandestine drug manufacture sounds to me like common sense.

“What is now proposed appears to be ‘an investigation on the spot into the conditions and the circumstances attaching to collaboration [Page 743] between the Chinese authorities and the authorities of the countries referred to in Chapter IV of The Hague Convention98 for the application of provisions of that Chapter.[’] ‘The countries referred to in Chapter IV of The Hague Convention’ are, in the light of the discussion which took place in the Sub-Committee, understood to be limited to those nations which enjoy extraterritoriality in China.

“The provisions of Chapter IV of The Hague Opium Convention of 1912 deal with the following subjects:

  • “1. Prevention and suppression of the smuggling of opium and of manufactured narcotic drugs.
    • “(a) into Chinese Territory.
    • “(b) into the settlements, concessions and leased territories.
    • “(c) into far eastern colonies.
    • “(d) out of China into ‘foreign colonies and leased territories’.
  • “2. Promulgation of pharmacy laws for China and extension of the application of those laws to extraterritorial nationals.
  • “3. Restriction and control of opium smoking and of the trade in opium in settlements, concessions and leased territories pari passu with that effected by the Chinese Government.
  • “4. Prevention of import through foreign post offices in China.

“By its terms, the mandate of the proposed commission would thus be extremely limited in scope. Its scope would be further limited by the conditions obtaining at present in Manchuria and Jehol and in the so-called ‘demilitarized area’ south of the great wall.

“Our view of the matter is that:

  • “(1) the scope of the proposed survey is too limited for the accomplishment of any effective result.
  • “(2) circumstances in Manchuria and Jehol and the legalization by the Chinese Government of the production and sale of opium render the present moment inopportune for undertaking any international survey, even one limited, as is the proposed one, to collaboration in respect of smuggling, of pharmacy laws and of the control of opium smoking.

“In lieu of the proposed survey, I might suggest that the Opium Advisory Committee recommend that the treaty powers individually take up with the Chinese Government the question of improving cooperation to prevent and suppress smuggling and that the Chinese Government make another effort to comply with its treaty obligation to draft a pharmacy law which may be found acceptable.”

The Committee took the view that, for the time being, no further steps could well be taken toward the proposed survey.

  1. Submitted to the Secretary of State, July 27, 1935, by Stuart J. Fuller, Assistant Chief, Division of Far Eastern Affairs, who attended the Session of the Committee in an expert and advisory capacity. The portion of the report dealing with China was sent to the American Minister in China in Department’s instruction No. 1726, August 5 (not printed).
  2. Foreign Relations, 1912, p. 196.