500.C/1000: Telegram

The Consul General at Geneva (Tittmann) to the Secretary of State

4. Department’s telegram 3, January 12, 5 p.m. It is contemplated that all the technical work of the League including opium will be placed under the direction of the Central Committee except those matters for which other provision is specifically made by international conventions. The Permanent Central Opium Board and the Supervisory Body remain unaffected and will continue as heretofore. As regards the Advisory Committee and the Opium Section of the Secretariat it is expected that the Central Committee will assume the functions and powers relating thereto hitherto exercised by the Council. In the exercise of these powers and functions the Central Committee will presumably be guided by the same considerations and principles which in the past have formed the basis of the Council’s action.

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It appears unlikely that the composition of the Advisory Committee will be reconsidered in the near future. The reports of the Advisory Committee to the Central Committee will probably continue to be distributed by the Secretary General to meetings of the Assembly as a basis for the opium discussions of that body. Naturally definite statements concerning the Central Committee’s functions and policies relating to opium cannot be made until the Committee has been constituted, has drawn up its rules of procedure and started operations. The foregoing, however, seems a reasonable forecast in the light of discussions with interested persons here.

The members of the Opium Section do not anticipate that the new system will have any adverse effects on the opium work but rather expect it to continue successfully along lines similar to those followed in the past.

For general discussion of the Central Committee, see Consulate’s despatches 27, 33, and 43, Political, dated November 10, November 25, and December 28, respectively.3

Tittmann
  1. None printed.