House Doc. No. 1043, 62d Cong., 3d sess.

The Secretary of the Treasury to the Speaker of the House of Representatives 1

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, copy of a communication from the Secretary of State of October 28, 1912, submitting an estimate of appropriation in the sum of $25,000 to enable this Government to continue its efforts to mitigate the opium, morphine, and other allied drug evils.

A similar estimate was transmitted to Congress at the request of the Secretary of State on July 2, 1912 (H. Doc. No. 861, 62d Cong., 2d sess.), for inclusion in the general deficiency bill, but was not so acted upon by Congress, and the Secretary of State renews the estimate at this time with a view to its inclusion in an urgent deficiency bill.

Respectfully,

Franklin MacVeagh.
[Inclosure.]

The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury.

Sir: On June 29 of this year I had the honor to address you requesting you to be good enough to submit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, with a view to its inclusion in the general deficiency bill, an item appropriating $25,000 to enable this Government to continue its efforts to mitigate the opium, morphine, and other allied drug evils. In accordance with, my request, on July [Page 224] 2 you addressed the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the above sense. The Congress, however, failed to include in the general deficiency bill the item in question.

In my letter it was pointed out that diplomatic and economic difficulties might make necessary the holding of another conference at The Hague in the near future, at which final action on the questions involved would be taken. It is now quite certain that a concluding conference will be held, convening early in the coming year, and bearing in mind the prominence of this Government in the international movement looking to the eradication of these drug evils, bearing in mind indeed that it was on the initiation of this Government that there was held, first, the international commission to study the various aspects of the question, and then the international conference of last winter, to finish the work of which the coming conference is to be called, the absolute necessity of the appropriation I am now requesting is apparent. The failure of the Congress to make this appropriation means the failure of this Government to assist in carrying out the work which it initiated, a work which it is manifestly pledged to conclude.

With a view to its inclusion in the urgent deficiency bill, I therefore have the honor to request you again to submit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives the following item of appropriation:

To enable this Government to continue its efforts to mitigate if not entirely stamp out the opium, morphine, and other allied drug evils by further investigations and proceedings and through another international conference, to make effective the results heretofore accomplished, twenty-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of State.

I have the honor to transmit herewith copies of Senate Document No. 733, Sixty-second Congress, second session; of House Document No. 861 of the same Congress, and of your letter of July 10 to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. I have the honor to be, sir,

Your obedient servant,

P. C. Knox.

Note.—The Netherlands Government on December 31, 1912, prepared a table showing the dates of signature of the “Protocol of signature of the powers not represented at the conference,” as far as such signing had progressed up to and including December 31, 1912, as follows: Costa Rica, April 25; Mexico, May 15; Guatemala, June 17; Belgium (with reservation as to the Belgian Congo), June 18; Luxemburg, June 18; Panama, June 19; Ecuador, July 2; Honduras, July 5; Salvador, July 30; Haiti, August 21; Venezuela, September 10; Brazil, October 16; Argentina, October 17; Spain, October 23; Dominican Republic, November 12; Paraguay, December 14; Denmark, December 17. (File No. 511.4A1/1355.)

  1. Referred to the Committee on Appropriations December 5, 1912, and ordered to be printed.