File No. 774/699.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
The Prince of Ch’ing
to Chargé Fletcher.
Foreign Office,
Peking, January 3,
1910.
No. 658.]
Your Excellency: I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of November 6,
1909, in which your excellency forwards the proposals of the
American Government for the convening of an opium conference and
asks for the views of the Chinese Government thereon.
After due consideration by my board, China gives her cordial assent
to the proposal to convene an opium conference to make operative the
recommendations agreed upon by the opium commission at Shanghai. The
tentative program for the deliberations of the conference is, in
general, admirable, but there are several points that need careful
consideration.
Proposal (a) reads:
The advisability of uniform national laws and regulations to
control the production, manufacture, and distribution of
opium, its derivatives and preparations.
It is necessary to specify that in drawing up such
regulations there shall be no interference with the sovereign rights
of any nation.
Proposal (i) reads:
The advisability of uniform provisions of penal laws
concerning offenses against any agreements that the powers
make in regard to opium production and traffic.
This should be altered to the effect that such
offenses should be punished by each country according to its own
penal laws.
Proposal (1) reads:
The advisability of reciprocal right of search of vessels
suspected of carrying contraband opium.
This should be altered to the effect that every
nation should have the right of search of vessels found within its
own territorial waters.
Proposal (n) reads:
The advisability of an international commission to be
entrusted with the carrying out of any international
agreements concluded.
After any agreements have been reached by the
conference, the powers, having assented, will be under obligation to
conform to them, but there would be no need of such a commission as
that proposed.
[Page 293]
The above are the views of my board, which I ask your excellency to
transmit to the American Government for its consideration. When the
time and place for the conference have been determined China will
appoint delegates, but it will be necessary to stipulate that the
Chinese delegates, while they may be styled plenipotentiaries, must
obtain the formal assent of the Chinese Government before signing
such conventions and regulations as may be agreed upon.
I now send this note for transmission to your excellency’s
Government, trusting that it will receive consideration and that a
reply may be sent.
A necessary dispatch.
