ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC IN OPIUM AND ......The Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and...

[Distributed to the Council and the Members of the League.] Official No.: Q. 138. M. 51, 1930. XI.

[O.C.ii7i(i).]

Geneva, February 1930.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC IN OPIUM

AND OTHER DANGEROUS DRUGS

REPORT TO THE COUNCIL ON THE WORK OF THE THIRTEENTH SESSION

Held at Geneva from January 20th to February 14th , ig3o.

The Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs has the honour to submit to the Council of the League of Nations the following report on the work of its thirteenth session, which was held at Geneva from January 20th to February 14th, 1930.

The session was the longest yet held by the Committee and was of considerable importance, not only because it produced, by unanimous agreement, a plan for the direct limitation of the manufacture of narcotic drugs, but also because it was able to record a most important stage in the application of the Geneva Convention in several countries and the consequent reduction by considerable quantities of the amounts of narcotic drugs manufactured.

In accordance with the usual procedure, the Committee discussed in public session all questions of general importance. I t held thirty-five public meetings and four private meetings.

The Committee welcomed for the first time: Dr. Woo Kaiseng, the representative of China, who replaced M. Wang King Ky; M. Ito, who took the place of His Excellency M. Sato, delegate of Japan; and its new Assessor, M. A. H. Sirks, Chief of the Rotterdam Pohce, who was appointed by the Council in March 1929 to the place left vacant owing to the resignation of Colonel Arthur Woods. Dr. Cuellar, representative of Bolivia, was not able to attend the session.

The Committee said farewell with regret to M. Henri Brenier, who, owing to the pressure of professional duties, has resigned his position as assessor. M. Brenier was able to attend the session for two days to take leave of his colleagues and to make an interesting statement, in which he summed up his impressions of his twenty-one years’ public work in connection with the opium problem. Egypt, being invited to send a representative who could take part in the discussions with regard to the illicit traffic so far as Egypt was concerned, appointed Russell Pacha, Chief of the Cairo City Pohce and Director of the Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau at Cairo, who rendered most valuable assistance to the Committee in its work.

Below is a complete list of members and assessors who took part in the work of the session :

M. W . G. v a n W e t t u m (Chairman) ........................ Netherlands.M. Gaston B o u r g o i s (Vice-Chairman) .................... France.D r . K a h l e r ..................................................................................... Germany.D r . Woo K a i s e n g .......................................................................... China.Sir Malcolm D e l e v i n g n e , K.C.B................................ Great Britain.S ir John Ca m p b e l l , C . S . I .......................................................... India.Senator S. Ca v a z z o n i ............................................................... Italy.M. N . I t o .......................................................................................... Japan.D r . Augusto d e V a s c o n c e l l o s .......................................... Portugal.M. Constantin F o t i t c h

(Substitute: M . M i l i t c h e v i t c h ) ................................ Kingdom of Yugoslavia.His Serene Highness Prince V a r n v a i d y a ....................... Siam.D r . C a r r i è r e .................................................................................... Switzerland.

Mr. John Kenneth Ca l d w e l l .................................... United States of America.

Assessors: M. Henri B r e n i e r (resigned).Mr. L. A. L y a l l .

M. A. H. S i r k s .

Secretariat : The Social Questions and Opium Traffic Section.

S . d . N . 8 5 0 ( F . ) 9 2 5 ( A . ) 3 / 3 0 . I m p . K i r n d i g . S e r ie s of L e a g u e of N a t io n s P u b l ic a t io n s

X I . O P IU M A N D O T H E R D A N G E R O U S D R U G S

1930 XI. 2.

R a t i f i c a t i o n a n d A p p l i c a t i o n o f t h e G e n e v a C o n v e n t i o n .

The Committee as usual began its work with an examination of the Progress Report of the Secretary. This report gives information with regard to the ratification and application of the Opium Conventions and, in particular, indicates the extent to which effect is being given by Governments to the resolutions adopted by the Committee and by the Assembly.

The Committee noted with appreciation the great interest shown by the Tenth Assembly and the action taken by it to secure the general adoption and effective application of the Geneva Convention. The resolution unanimously adopted by the Assembly accepting the principle of a direct limitation of the quantity of narcotic drugs manufactured has also opened the way for a measure supplementing the Geneva Convention which was under the consideration of the Committee in 1924, but which it was not found possible at tha t time to secure.

The Committee noted with satisfaction the progress made during the year in connection with the ratification of the Geneva Convention, as indicated by the increase since its last session in the number of ratifications or accessions, which is now thirty-four.

Since its last session, the following States have ratified : Germany, Greece, Siam, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, whilst Italy and Venezuela have ratified their accessions. Moreover, the following ten States have informed the League of their intention to ratify or to submit for parliamentary sanction the question of ratification : Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Estonia, Irish Free State, Hungary, Norway, Panama, Uruguay.

The Committee feels it necessary, however, to call the special attention of the Council to the slow progress which is being made as regards the ratification and enforcement of the International Opium Conventions in Central and South America. The position is indicated in the following statement :

(a) States which are not Parties to the Hague Convention of 1912 :

Argentine 1 Dominican Republic 2 Paraguay 1 Salvador 2

(b) States which are not Parties to the Geneva Convention of 1925 :

Argentine Bolivia 3 Brazil3 Chile 3 Colombia Costa Rica

Cuba 3EcuadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasMexico

Nicaragua •' Panama Paraguay PeruUruguay 3

E x a m i n a t i o n o f A n n u a l R e p o r t s f r o m G o v e r n m e n t s .

The Committee devoted some time to a detailed examination of the annual reports, which form the most important source of information available to it regarding the general state of the traffic. This examination affords an opportunity to the delegates of Governments represented on the Committee to give supplementary information and explanations upon points which require to be elucidated and to make declarations with regard to the policy of their Governments.

The Committee was particularly glad to receive reports for the first time from Costa Rica (1927 and 1928), Iceland (1928), Panama (1926, 1927 and 1928), Persia (1928), Uruguay (1928) and Haiti (1929). A report was received from Bolivia (1927-1929), which has not forwarded a report since 1922, from Brazil (1928), whose last report was for the year 1922, from China (1928), which has not sent a report since 1925, and from Lithuania (1928), which has not forwarded a report since 1924. The report for the French Colonies gave detailed information regarding the territory of Kwang-Chow-Wan.

The Committee received two reports of the Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau of the Egyptian Government, published by the Ministry of the Interior, and relating to the year 1929. The Committee wishes to pay a tribute to the remarkable interest and value of these reports, which are amongst the most important documents it has had before it.

Reports were received for the year 1928 from the following Latin-American countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico (first four months), Panama, Uruguay; and from Haiti for the year 1929.

Whilst the Advisory Committee is glad to note that several South and Central American countries have begun to send annual reports to the League, it is obliged to draw the attention

1 H as signed, b u t n o t ratified .2 H as signed an d ra tified th e C onvention , b u t has n o t signed th e P ro toco l re la tiv e to th e b ring ing in to force of the

C onvention.3 S ignato ry of th e Convention o r has acceded ad referendum.

— 3 —

of the Council once more to the continued absence of annual reports from a large number of Central and South American countries.

The present position is indicated in the following statement:

Annual R eports received from South and Central American Countries

for the Years 1922 to 1928.

X denotes th a t a report has been received.— denotes that no report has been received.

1922

A r g e n t in e .............................. —B olivia...................................... XB r a z i l ...................................... XChile.......................................... XColombia 2 .............................. —Costa R ic a .............................. —Cuba.......................................... XDominican Republic. . . . —Ecuador .................................. —G u a tem a la .............................. XHaiti 4 ...................................... —H o n d u r a s .............................. —Mexico...................................... —N ic a ra g u a .............................. —P a n a m a .................................. —Paraguay.................................. —Peru 7 ...................................... —S alv ad o r.................................. —U ru g u ay .................................. —Venezuela 9 .............................. —

The following countries of South and Central America have sent in quarterly statistics of exports and imports to the Permanent Central Board:

Brazil Dominician Republic MexicoCosta Rica Guatemala PanamaCuba Honduras V enezuela.

In connection with its discussion of the Hungarian annual report, the Committee had the assistance of M. Bar any ai, the representative of the Hungarian Government. M. Baranyai made a detailed statem ent regarding the new drug factory established in Hungary and the general situation in that country from the point of view of the drug trade. He quoted from the most recent communication forwarded by his Government, dated January 20th, 1930, a statement that the factory in question desires only to manufacture half-finished opium products, and the annual quantity of alkaloids it makes is the amount necessary for the needs of Hungary, and he pointed out th a t the business of the factory is being carried on, as in the past, strictly in accordance with the Hungarian law.

During the discussion of the French annual report, an important statement regarding the situation in France during the year 1928 was made by M. Razet, Head of the Bureau des stupéfiants, which was established in France on January 1st, 1929. He explained th a t the year 1928 had been an abnormal one. Drug dealers had taken advantage of the fact th a t new regulations enforcing the import certificate system would come into force on January 1st, 1929, to replenish their stocks and, owing to the low price of opium, the imports had been higher than usual. The imports of raw opium were 159,221 kilos. The amount in stock at the end of December 1928 was 88,000 kilos. The amount of raw opium available for the manufacture of alkaloids was 72,786 kilos, corresponding to 7,278 kilos of morphine. 3,000 kilos of heroin were manufactured and 1,078 kilos imported. Exports of heroin were 3,000 kilos; there remained a thousand kilos, which he hoped would be accounted for as a result of investigations into cases

1 R e p o rt covers in p a r t period 1927-1929.2 L e tte r d a ted Sep tem ber 7th, 1929, s ta te s th a t a re p o rt is being p repared and will be sen t as soon as possible to the

M inistry for Foreign Affairs fo r transm ission to the Com m ittee.8 L e t te r despa tched to th e Secretaria t on J a n u a ry 10th, 1924.4 A nnual re p o r t fo r 1929 received.5 L e t te r despatched to S ec re ta ria t on J a n u a ry 8 th giving inform ation . No year in d ica ted .« F irs t four m on ths of 1928.7 Telegram received on O ctober 18th, 1929, expressing agreem en t w ith request th a t an annual re p o rt should be sent.8 General in form ation despa tched to th e Secre taria t on June 20th, 1923. N o year given.9 A le t te r d a ted June 24th, 1929, s ta te s th a t th e an n u al rem inder le t te r despatched by th e Secre taria t has been

orw arded to th e co m p e ten t d e p a rtm en t for necessary action, th e re su lt of which will be forw arded to th e Secretariat.

1 9 2 3 I 9 2 4 1 9 2 5

X

X

1 9 2 6

X

X X

1 9 2 7 1 9 2 8

— X 1— X— X

X XX —

X —

XXX

X

X

X

X

X

— 4 —

of smuggling which were now proceeding. The French representative explained that 1,086 kilos of heroin exported to China had been forwarded on the receipt of an import certificate. The Chinese delegate stated that the import certificate in question had undoubtedly not been authentic. The French representative informed the Committee that, since the establishment of the Bureau des stupéfiants, the acceptance of all certificates from China had been refused and not one gramme of narcotics had been sent to that country. Moreover, the French Government now required an import certificate from all countries whether they applied the import certificate system or not. For the first three quarters of 1929, he had only authorised the export of 64 kilos of heroin and had practically stopped its import. The exports and imports of cocaine amounted respectively to 105 and 99 kilos, those of raw opium being 12 and 45 tons respectively. M. Bourgois also mentioned that a decree providing for direct limitation of manufacture was about to be published. The French representative also undertook to supply information regarding the export to China and the export of 965 kilos of heroin to Turkey in order, as far as possible, to throw light upon the persons engaged in illicit traffic in those countries.

During the discussion of the Japanese annual report, attention was drawn to the large surplus of cocaine, averaging 1,184 kilos per annum for the years 1923 to 1928, which appeared to be left in Japan after deducting the small exports and the probable internal consumption-— calculated on the basis of 7 milligrammes per head per annum—and at the same time to the enormous seizures of cocaine in India, of which a considerable quantity was of undoubted Japanese origin. The Japanese delegate made a reservation with regard to the question of the internal consumption of cocaine in Japan. His Government was investigating this matter. He pointed out that medical requirements appeared to differ considerably from one country to another. If the consumption of cocaine in Japan was as high as the consumption appeared to be in some countries, Japan would require 1,600 or 1,700 kilogrammes per annum. He said tha t his Government was doing its best to deal with the illicit traffic and for this purpose had introduced new regulations. His Government had also, as announced at the last Assembly, decided to decrease manufacture of cocaine by 10 per cent per annum for a period of four years.

During the discussion of the Swiss annual report, the Swiss delegate drew attention to the considerable decrease in the manufacture and import and export of drugs covered by the Convention, so far as Switzerland was concerned, during the past three years. The manufacture of morphine and of heroin had decreased during those years by about 75 per cent. I t was probable that, from 1930 onwards, there would be a further decrease in both manufacture and export, particularly of morphine, as a result of the new law which brought under control the esters of morphine and which entered into force on February 1st, 1930. In Switzerland, almost all applications for the export of drugs to China were refused, except in very small quantities.

The Government of the United States of America has been good enough to forward to the Committee two very interesting reports dealing with the administration and working of the laws on narcotic drugs in the United States of America and in the Philippines. The report relating to the United States contained much interesting and valuable information as to the consumption for medical purposes of narcotic drugs and the difficulties experienced by the Government in preventing the smuggling of opium and drugs from abroad, which is still carried on to an alarming extent and of which numerous instances are given in the report. Further reference will be made to the latter point in the section of this report dealing with the illicit traffic.

In the report on the Philippines, the Committee noted the difficulties experienced by the authorities in the Islands in enforcing the law which prohibits the use of opium for smoking and in preventing the illicit importation of opium and dangerous drugs into the Islands. During the year ended June 30th, 1928, the internal revenue agents and police seized 2,936 kilos of prepared opium; 591 violations of the law were reported and 418 prosecutions undertaken.

In accordance with the instructions of the Committee, the Secretariat has investigated a large number of discrepancies which have been noted between the export and import returns of various countries as given in their annual reports. With the assistance of the Governments concerned, much useful work has been done which not only will have the result of securing greater uniformity on the part of the Governments in the presentation of the statistics, but has also led to the detection of cases of the illicit traffic and the methods of the traffickers. The Committee may instance one very important case in which 600 kilos of morphine were exported from Switzerland to Estonia in 1925-26, on the basis of an import certificate which purported to have been issued by the Estonian Consul-General in Berlin, and which was accepted at the time as genuine by the Swiss authorities, but" which the subsequent investigations of the Estonian Government have now proved to be a forgery.

I l l i c i t T r a f f i c .

The year under review has been marked by the detection of a large number of cases of illicit traffic, some of them of the first importance, and by the success achieved on the part of the authorities in tracing the channels through which large supplies of the drugs have been obtained for illicit purposes, and the persons engaged in organising the traffic and supplying the drugs.

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There still remain, however, important sources of supply and centres of distribution which have not yet been traced, and the Committee have given special consideration to the methods by which the work of investigation, involving in almost all cases the co-operation of the authorities of several countries, could be rendered more effective. The great importance of the subject of the illicit traffic makes it desirable to deal with it in some detail.

While the illicit traffic extends to almost every part of the world—as is evidenced by the reports of seizures received from many Governments—it will be sufficient for the purposes of this report to mention the following facts: Egypt is being flooded with drugs to such a degree that the number of addicts is estimated by the Egyptian Government as reaching a total of 500,000 out of a population of 14 millions. Cocaine is streaming into India, Malaya and other regions in large quantities from centres of distribution which are at present only partially known. Drugs ,and opium are being smuggled, also in large quantities, into the United States and Canada. Large seizures of opium have continued to be made in the Far East, and a mysterious brand of prepared opium bearing the false label “ Lam Kee Hop, Macao ” has been found in Canada, Australia, the United States and the Netherlands East Indies.

E g y p t .

Russell Pacha, representing the Government of Egypt, laid before the Committee a report on the working of the Egyptian Narcotics Bureau during the first year of its existence, and supplemented it by a statement in public session which made a profound impression upon the Committee. The report and the statement were of the greatest value, not only for the revelation which they made of the ravages caused by the illicit drug traffic in that country during the last ten years, but also for the information which they furnished as to the methods successfully employed by the Egyptian authorities in unmasking some of the organisations engaged in this traffic and tracing the sources from which they obtain their supplies.

Before the war, addiction to hashish prevailed to some extent in Egypt, but addiction to the other narcotic drugs was almost unknown. To-day, Russell Pacha stated, there is addiction in every class of society: “ Before the introduction of these European poisons, there was no more healthy, hard-working and cheerful class of person in the world than the Egyptian agricultural labourer. To-day, every village in Egypt has its heroin victims and they are the youth of the country

Important seizures of drugs made by the Egyptian authorities during 1929 revealed that one important organisation concerned in the traffic was situated in Vienna. Russell Pacha’s agents proceeded to that city and, with the active co-operation of the Vienna police, were successful in discovering the persons concerned. The investigations at Vienna showed that the sources from which the traffickers obtained their supplies were to be found in Switzerland and France. Agents proceeded first to Switzerland and then to France, in both of which countries they received the full co-operation of the local police, and as a result were able to make most important discoveries as to some of the sources from which the illicit traffic is supplied. Further particulars in regard to these sources of supplies are given below, but it may be mentioned here that one manufacturing firm alone had exported, during the three and a-half years from the beginning of 1926 to June 1929, 6,414 kilos of heroin, 943 kilos of morphine and 205 kilos of cocaine.

S m u g g l i n g o f C o c a i n e i n t o I n d i a , M a l a y a , e t c ., f r o m t h e F a r E a s t .

Reference to this matter has already been made under the heading of “ Annual Reports ”. As in previous years, the cocaine which has been seized by the authorities in India, Malaya and elsewhere has borne, in some cases, the labels of Japanese firms licensed by the Japanese Government to manufacture the drugs, in particular the Hoshi Manufacturing Company and the Koto Seiyaku Manufacturing Company; and, in other and more numerous cases, the labels of the Fujitsuru, Buddha, Elephant, Peacock, and " Tacmnufa Fo One ” brands. The sources of these latter brands are still unknown. In a number of cases, they are accompanied by a forged label bearing the name of " C. F. Boehringer und Soehne, Mannheim ”. The total number of seizures reported to the Committee during the period under review in India, Burma, Malaya and Hong-Kong was thirty-eight and the total amount of cocaine seized was approximately 8,880 oz. Some evidence before the Committee pointed to the existence of a centre of this traffic in a district in Southern China. The Government of China is at present making an enquiry into this matter.

The Committee adopted the following resolution:

" The Advisory Committee,

“ Having again examined the situation with regard to the illicit traffic and having noted the continued use in the illicit traffic on a large scale both of special labels (e.g., the Fujitsuru, Buddha, Elephant, Peacock and ‘ Lam Kee Hop ’ labels) and of forged labels bearing the names of established factories;

“ Having also noted that these labels in almost all cases appear on drugs from the Far East;

" Being convinced that, if the origin of the labels could be discovered, an important step would have been taken towards the suppression of the illicit traffic :

“ Request the Council to urge the Governments, especially of the Far-Eastern countries, to make every effort to discover where and by whom these labels are produced.”

N o r t h A m e r i c a .

Numerous seizures of opium coming from the Far East were reported by the authorities both of the United States and of Canada, but a much more serious problem is presented to the authorities of these countries by the importation of narcotic drugs from the West. One case which has been reported by the Government of the United States indicates the scale on which this traffic has been carried on. On December iSth, 1928, Federal officers seized in New York eight cases of narcotic drugs consisting of 4,800 one-ounce cans of morphine and 2,000 one-ounce cans of cocaine. These cases, together with one case of brushes, had arrived from France on the S.S. Rochambeau, the entire shipment being billed as brushes.

O p i u m S m u g g l i n g i n t h e F a r E a s t .

The importation of Persian opium into China continued on a large scale. Over 2,000 cases of Persian opium were shipped during the year from the Persian Gulf, which were declared for Vladivostok, but which the evidence before the Committee makes it certain were smuggled into China. On the other hand, large seizures of Chinese opium, both raw and prepared, were made by the authorities in Hong-Kong, Netherlands East Indies, Malaya and the Philippines. One brand of prepared opium, the “ Lam Kee Hop, Macao ” brand, has repeatedly appeared, but so far its origin has not yet been discovered. The Portuguese representative informed the Committee that a thorough investigation had been undertaken by the authorities at Macao which made it clear tha t the brand did not originate in tha t possession.

The Committee places on record facts which have come to its knowledge with reference to the following persons and firms :

Dr. Hefti, a licensed manufacturer of drugs at Altstetten, Zurich, supplied a large quantity of a morphine ester—not then covered by the Swiss law or Geneva Convention, but having the same harmful effects as heroin—to the brothers Zellinger a t Vienna, who were carrying on the smuggling of drugs into Egypt. Dr. Hefti had taken part in other transactions of the kind which had come to the notice of the Committee in previous years.

Rôssler Fils, a drug-manufacturing firm at Morschwiller-le-Bas, near Mulhouse. This is the firm referred to above as having exported 6,414 kilos of heroin, 943 kilos of morphine and 205 kilos of cocaine in the space of three and a-half years, the whole or the great bulk of which went into the illicit traffic. Some of these drugs found their way to Egypt through the hands of the brothers Zellinger. Four cases of the drugs were seized in Paris by the French Customs in July 1929.

Société industrielle de chimie organique de Ste. Geneviève. This firm shipped a large consignment of drugs to the United States on the S.S. Rochambeau, referred to above. I t has appeared in connection with a number of cases of illicit traffic and was one of the four firms specially mentioned in the report of the Advisory Committee last year.

I t is reported to the Committee that Devineau, the head of the firm, is establishing a drug factory in Constantinople.

Gallix, Dubois, Muller & Cie. This firm has appeared in connection with a number of cases of illicit traffic over a period of some years. In 1928, it obtained 225 kilos of morphine from Switzerland.

Kaempf & Cie, Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, Paris. This firm was engaged in a series of smuggling transactions in 1928.

The Committee has much fuller information in regard to these firms than they are able to make public at the present time, as the transactions of the firms are forming the subject of judicial enquiries.

In view of the fact stated above—that one of these firms is establishing or has established a factory for the manufacture of drugs at Constantinople—the Committee recommends that full particulars of the illicit transactions in which this firm has been engaged should be furnished to the Turkish Government.

The Committee also draws attention to the part knowingly taken in some of these transactions by forwarding and shipping firms. I t desires, in particular, to refer to Messrs. Follet et André of Havre and Paris, who have been employed by some of the above-mentioned firms in the exportation of drugs.

The Committee considers it important that the part played by forwarding agents in the illicit traffic—a matter to which it has called attention on a previous occasion—should be fully investigated by the Governments concerned, and it has decided to place the question on the agenda of its next meeting.

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The Committee has considered carefully whether, as a result of its examination of the reports it has received on the illicit traffic, it could make any suggestions for the improvement of the present methods of dealing with it.

I t has noted with satisfaction the successful results which have been obtained by co-operation between the Police authorities of different countries. This has been particularly noticeable in the Egyptian cases referred to above and in cases which have been investigated by the Rotterdam Police. The method in all cases has been the same; namely, the detailing of a skilled officer with special knowledge to follow the clues obtained in any case of illicit traffic, with the co-operation of the local administrative and Police authorities in any countries to which they may lead until the organisers of the traffic and the sources from which they have obtained their supplies have been discovered. The Committee would urge the extension of this co-operation to the fullest possible extent and it has adopted and makes some detailed suggestions on this matter at a later point in this report.

The Committee also considers it of the first importance that the Governments of all countries should be kept currently informed of the persons organising or carrying on the traffic or supplying drugs for the traffic. I t recommends, therefore, that a “ Black List ’’ of such persons should be compiled in the Secretariat from the information in the possession of the Committee and circulated to the Governments. I t asks that the Governments shall co-operate by supplying the particulars of any persons engaged in the traffic, and the methods adopted by them, tha t they may obtain through their investigations.

The Committee feels compelled to insist once more in the strongest possible manner on the importance of an effective application of the system of licences. The cases which it has had before it this year show that certain firms which have for years been supplying drugs for illicit use have been allowed to carry on because no actual contravention of a law in force had been committed by them. The system of licences was adopted by the Geneva Conference in 1925 for the purpose of ensuring that only firms who were prepared to carry on their business in good faith and in the spirit as well as in the letter of the law should be permitted to manufacture or trade in narcotic drugs. I t is the view of the Committee that the system loses a large part of its value if a firm which sails as near to the wind as possible while avoiding actual contravention of the law is allowed to retain its licence.

The value of the system of requiring packages of the drugs as issued by drug manufacturers to be marked with serial numbers, a system which was recommended by the Committee in previous reports and in its code of administrative control, has again been shown in a number of cases which have been reported to the Committee. The system, however, is not by any means universally in force, and the Committee would again urge its adoption on the Governments of the manufacturing countries. I t proposes to consider at its next meeting the desirability of extending the system to the packages of the drugs sent out by wholesale dealers, and it would ask the Council to suggest to the Governments concerned that they should examine the question and forward their views for the guidance of the Committee. I t has been represented to the Committee that the word " packages ” is somewhat ambiguous. I t is not clear whether the actual receptacle in which the

drug is contained was meant or the outer packing of the receptacle. The Committee takes the opportunity of making it clear tha t it is the actual receptacle that should be marked.

The Committee has been struck, as in some previous years, by the light penalties imposed for infractions of the drug laws in the cases of persons who have deliberately engaged in the illicit traffic. It has decided to ask the Secretariat to prepare for consideration at its next meeting a memorandum summarising the penalty provisions in the drug laws of the countries wThich are parties to the Hague or Geneva Conventions and to examine what steps could be taken to bring about an agreement for the application of penalties adequate to the serious nature of the offences in question.

In 1925, at its seventh session, the Committee adopted a resolution:

“ The Committee, having had its attention called to the Extradition Treaty recently concluded between the United States and Canada in respect of offenders against the laws relating to opium and dangerous drugs and being impressed with the gravity of many of the offences against those laws, suggests to the Council that the attention of the Governments Members of the League or parties to the Convention might be called to the conclusion of this treaty, and that they might be asked to examine the question, with a view to the possible conclusion of similar treaties."

It does not know whether the question has in fact been considered by the Governments or, if it has been considered, what action has been taken in the matter. I t suggests that the Council should remind the Governments of the resolution and ask them to inform the Council as to any action they are taking or are proposing to take.

The following report prepared by a Sub-Committee of the Committee on certain proposals submitted to the Committee by its Police Assessor (document O.C.1161) was approved by the Committee :

"T he Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs suggests that the attention of the Governments should be invited to the advantages which would accrue, as regards rapidity of action, the continuous application in practice of an accepted

policy, and the securing of more effective control, if all questions relating to the manufacture of, use, transport, possession, and control in general of dangerous drugs were dealt with by one central authority in each country. The Committee recognises that the internal laws of various countries—particularly of countries organised on a federal basis—may preclude the adoption of this suggestion ; but, even in such cases, it would urge that the efficiency of the administration would probably be increased if the system of unified and centralised control were adopted, to the extent to which that is compatible with the existing laws in such countries.

“ (i) The Committee would, in particular, urge that centralised and unified Police control is desirable, not only in the interests of each individual country, but also because such control would materially facilitate international co-operation. For effective action in international cases of illicit traffic, rapidity is essential; rapidity cannot in general be obtained unless control is centralised and unless each country concerned is in a position to get into immediate and direct contact with an authority in the other countries interested which has at its disposal all relevant sources of information and which is empowered to deal authoritatively with such questions.

“ (2) The Opium Advisory Committee, as a result of its experience and as a practical conclusion drawn from a detailed examination of all important seizure reports over a series of years, desires to emphasise the importance of the closest possible co-operation between the authorities charged with the supervision over the traffic in dangerous drugs in different countries. This close co-operation is specially necessary, and specially valuable, as between the national Police authorities ; and the Committee trust tha t all Governments will take such action as may be possible to facilitate and encourage such co-operation. In particular, it would urge that, in all cases where the circumstances are such as to render investigations by the Police authorities of one country in a second country advisable or necessary, the Police of the latter country should be instructed by their Government to. facilitate these investigations and to give all assistance which the national laws permit.

“ (3) The Opium Advisory Committee also suggests that the Governments should refer freely to the Secretariat of the League of Nations in all cases of illicit traffic where it seems probable that information of value could be obtained from them. The Secretariat now possesses a mass of detailed information regarding the marks and labels often applied to illicit drugs, the sources of supply, and the methods adopted in obtaining such drugs and in disposing of them ; it also has in its possession precise details regarding [certain international smugglers and their relations with one another. I t will gladly place such information, where it is at liberty to communicate it, at the disposal of any Government, and the Opium Advisory Committee trusts that the Secretariat will be approached by the various national authorities in all cases where that would appear likely to lead to useful results."

All illicit transactions and seizures reported to the League of Nations since the Committee’s last session had been collected by the Secretariat in a list, in the same way as in former years. The Committee considered this list, which gives a summary of the illicit traffic cases in a very comprehensive way, to be of the greatest interest and decided to recommend that it should be communicated to all Members of the League and the parties to the Hague and Geneva Conventions.

L i m i t a t i o n o f M a n u f a c t u r e .

The Tenth Assembly adopted, on September 24th, 1929, a resolution dealing with direct limitation of the manufacture of narcotic drugs, which reads as follows:

“ The Assembly:

“ Impressed by the disclosures made in the report of the Advisory Committee as to the large quantities of dangerous drugs still passing in the illicit traffic;

“ Recalling the proposals made in connection with the Geneva Conference of 1924-25 for the direct limitation by agreement between the Governments of the manufacturing countries of the amount of such drugs manufactured;

“ Taking note of the important declaration made in the course of the present meeting of the Assembly by the representative of France that his Government has decided to impose such limitation on its manufacturers, and of the declarations made by other Governments as to limitation;

“ Recognising that the Geneva Convention of 1925 provides indispensable machinery for the national and international control of the traffic in drugs, the effective application of which should be secured in all countries at the earliest possible date, but that, owing to the delay in bringing the Convention into force, its full effects cannot be realised in the near future ;

“ Desiring that, if possible, steps supplementing the Convention should be taken without delay to limit the manufacture of dangerous drugs to the amounts required for medical and scientific purposes:

“ (i) Regards the principle of the limitation of the manufacture of the drugsmentioned in paragraphs (b), (c) and (g) of Article 4 of the Convention of Geneva byinternational agreement as now accepted;

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“ (ii) Requests the Advisory Committee to prepare plans for such limitation, regard being had to world requirements for medical and scientific purposes and the means of preventing an increase in prices which would lead to the establishment of new factories in countries which are not at present manufacturing countries ;

“ (iii) The Committee’s report will be submitted to the Council, which will decide on the convening of a conference of the Governments in whose countries the above- mentioned drugs are manufactured and the principal consuming countries in a number not exceeding that of the manufacturing countries, and whether certain experts proposed by the Opium and the Health Committees should be included;

“ (iv) Recommends that the Advisory Committee be enlarged in order to ensure more effective representation on that Committee of the non-manufacturing countries;

“ (v) Agrees tha t the sum of 25,000 Swiss francs shall be included in the budget of the League for 1930 in order to meet the expenses of such a conference.”

The report of the Fifth Committee of the Assembly summed up the discussion which preceded this resolution as follows:

“ The result of this discussion was the emergence for the first time in the history of the League of an agreement amongst the manufacturing countries as to the desirability of the limitation of manufacture, to be secured by means of an international conference which would determine the total amount of narcotic drugs required to meet the legitimate medical and scientific needs of the world, as well as the quota to be allocated amongst the various manufacturing countries.”

In accordance with the desire of the Assembly, the Committee has given the most careful consideration to the question and has prepared a plan for the direct limitation of manufacture, which was adopted unanimously. This plan, with certain explanations and observations, is annexed to this report. I t will be understood that the plan is an outline only and that on some important questions—such as the allocation of the quotas between the manufacturing countries and the machinery for ensuring that the consuming countries shall receive the supplies of the drugs required for their medical and scientific needs—the Committee was not in a position to do more than suggest the procedure which might be adopted for arriving at a solution before the meeting of the conference.

I t should be mentioned that the Italian representative made a declaration to the effect that his Government reserved the right to submit to the proposed conference a proposal that codein should be brought under the same system of control as the drugs already included in the Geneva Convention.

In the event of the Council’s accepting the plan submitted by the Committee as a practicable basis of agreement for the consideration of the conference, the Committee suggests that its report should be circulated at the earliest possible moment to the Governments which are Members of the League or parties to the Hague and Geneva Conventions for their examination, with a request that they will forward within a period of, say, three months any comments or observations they may wish to make.

The Committee further suggests that the Council, if it decides to convene the conference, should provisionally fix the date towards the end of October 1930.

Preparatory work on the available statistics of the manufacture of the drugs at the present time and on the rates of consumption of the drugs for medical and scientific purposes in various countries was put in hand by the Secretariat immediately after the adoption of the Assembly resolution, and memoranda on these subjects of much interest and value were placed before the Committee. However, the material at the disposal of the Secretariat for the purpose is still far from complete, and the Committee recommends that the Governments should be invited to furnish as far as possible the data as regards manufacture and consumption which are at present lacking.

L i s t o f F a c t o r i e s a u t h o r i s e d t o M a n u f a c t u r e D r u g s f a l l i n g u n d e r t h e G e n e v a O p iu m

C o n v e n t i o n o f 1925, C h a p t e r III.

The Committee submits to the Council a detailed list of factories which has been drawn up by the Secretariat on the basis of information in its possession and verified and completed by the Governments themselves. This is a valuable piece of work, for which the Committee desires to express its indebtedness to the Secretariat.

Co m p o s i t i o n o f t h e A d v i s o r y C o m m i t t e e .

At a meeting held on September 25th, 1929, the Council requested the Advisory Committee to consider and make proposals to the Council upon the recommendation of the Assembly that “ the Advisory Committee be enlarged in order to ensure more effective representation on that Committee of the non-manufacturing countries ”,

As to the principle of enlargement itself, certain members of the Committee expressed the view that an increase in the membership of the Committee, which, including the assessors and

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the observer from the U.S.A., already numbered seventeen, would lengthen its proceedings and tend to diminish the efficiency of its work, a consideration to which the Fifth Committee itself in its report drew the attention of the Assembly, stating that : “ whilst there was a strong feeling in the Fifth Committee in favour of a more effective representation of the non-manufacturing countries on the Advisory Committee, there was also a general feeling against the undue enlargement of the Advisory Committee to a point where its work would be rendered ineffective

It was also pointed out tha t the non-manufacturing countries, including countiies which produce the raw material but do not manufacture the drugs, are already in a majority on the Committee.

On the other hand, it was suggested tha t the enlargement of the Committee could not be avoided in view of the Assembly’s recommendation and tha t one result of such an enlargement would be to increase the authority of the Committee.

After an exhaustive discussion, the Committee came to the following conclusion, which it submits for the consideration of the Council :

“ The Committee considers that it would be an advantage to its work if it could have the assistance of countries not at present represented which are in a position to make a valuable contribution to its work, as indicated below, but at the same time it desires to express strongly its view tha t any addition to the numbers of the Committee must tend to increase the duration of its meetings, which have already grown to an undue length, and also to diminish the efficiency of its work, and it would ask the Council to bear this consideration in mind when coming to a decision.”

The Advisory Committee felt it to be its duty to place before the Council, for its consideration in coming to a decision on the subject, the results of its practical experience and knowledge of the drug situation throughout the world; and it accordingly submits for the Council’s approval three general principles of selection among non-manufacturing countries, adding as examples at the end of each of these categories countries that would fall within the particular categories. I t is to be understood that the countries mentioned are given as illustrations suggested by the Committee’s experience, and tha t it has regarded the matter solely from the point of view of the technical efficiency of the Committee’s work and without any intention of indicating or excluding candidatures. I t must, however, be noted that several members of the Committee expressed the opinion tha t no country should be mentioned by name. The declarations made on this subject by the French and Italian delegates will be found in the Minutes.

The principles referred to wTere formulated as follows:

The Committee considers that a further representation of the non-manufacturing countries might best be secured by proceeding on the basis of the following considerations. The choice should be made:

From among non-manufacturing countries which at present suffer severely from the illicit traffic, and this because such countries are in a position enabling them to place at the disposal of the Committee information of special value. Such countries will have, as a necessary consequence of the existence of a large illicit traffic, information of value as to the sources of tha t traffic, the methods employed by domestic and international smugglers, the identity of certain international traffickers and the defects of control which facilitate their operations; such countries are, for example, Egypt, Canada, Austria, Uruguay.

From among non-manufacturing countries which, on account of their geographical position or on account of their situation relative to the international trade in narcotic drugs, are of special importance and can for tha t reason bring a contribution of value to the work of the Committee; such countries are, for example, Austria, the south-eastern countries of Europe—particularly Greece—Belgium, the Baltic States, Central and South American States, such as Uruguay or Chile.

From among non-manufacturing countries which have in the past evinced a practical interest in the work of the Committee and have assisted tha t work by collaboration of practical value; such countries are, for example, Austria, Chile, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Uruguay and Belgium.

The Advisory Committee considers that, from the point of view of the efficiency of its work, the representation of the first category is of the greatest importance.

The Committee suggests that, if the Council approve the principles of selection above indicated, it would be desirable tha t the invitation to any Government to be represented on the Committee should be for a definite period of years (say, three), in view of the fact tha t the circumstances of the traffic alter from time to time; the representation being renewable if the circumstances continue to make it desirable.

The Advisory Committee would also point out tha t, should Turkey and Persia hereafter ratify the Hague and Geneva Conventions, it would probably be considered desirable tha t one or both, as being among the most important producers and exporters of raw opium, should be invited to send a representative to the Committee, and it suggests that this possibility might be borne in mind by the Council in deciding what changes to make at the present time.

A suggestion was made during the discussion that, in case a country did not make full use of its membership, the m atter should be brought to the attention of the Council, in order that it might instruct the Secretary-General to write to tha t country drawing its attention to the

— I I —

fact that it had not been represented at several sessions of the Committee and enquiring whether i t still wished to be represented on the Committee.

S i t u a t i o n i n t h e F a r E a s t .

The Committee had an interesting discussion on the situation in the Far East, and more particularly in China. The Chinese representative drew the attention of the Committee to the new laws and regulations which have been adopted by the Chinese National Government for the suppression of the cultivation and use of opium and the suppression of the illicit traffic in dangerous drugs. The Committee was unable, on the information before it, to record any substantial improvement at the present moment in the opium situation, but it hopes that the measures being taken by the National Government will prove effective.

The Chinese representative laid great stress on the drug situation in China and submitted for the consideration of the Committee a draft resolution on the subject. The Committee fully sympathised with the object of this resolution and accepted the proposal which it contained that the subject should be placed on the agenda of its next session. It considered it to be essential, however, that, in the meantime, steps should be taken to establish the actual facts of the situation, and it has added, with the concurrence of the Chinese representative, a suggestion for tha t purpose to the resolution. The resolution as adopted by the Committee runs as follows :

“ The Advisory Committee,

" Taking note of the fact that China is suffering from the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs covered by the Hague Convention of 1912 and that the Chinese Government experiences great difficulties in suppressing this illicit traffic owing to the existing conditions in China ;

“ Considering that Chapter IV of the Hague Convention of 1912 contains provisions for concerted action between the Chinese Government and the Governments of the Powers having treaties with China with a view to suppressing the abuse of opium and other dangerous drugs ;

" Being convinced that very close co-operation on these lines would be particularly useful at the present moment, more especially in view of the development and newr conditions of the illicit traffic in China :

“ Requests the Council to call the attention of the Treaty Powers to the matter, and recommends that a study should be made, by or with the assistance of the Government of China and the Governments of the Treaty Powers, of the position in China at the present time as regards the illicit drug traffic and of the measures taken by the Treaty Powers to give effect to the provisions of Chapter IV of the Hague Convention, with a view to the consideration of the subject at the next meeting of the Advisory Committee; and

" Decides to place the question of the drug situation in China on the agenda of its next session.”

The Chinese representative also referred to the action taken by the Governments of Great Britain and the United States, as recorded in the Committee’s report on the eleventh session, in withdrawing protection from vessels found to be engaged in smuggling opium on Chinese inland waters and depriving them of the right to fly the British or American flag as the case might be.

S i t u a t i o n i n t h e N e a r E a s t .

The Committee has again to call attention to the continued export from the Persian Gulf of large quantities of Persian opium to the Far East for illicit purposes. As noted in previous reports, these exports are invariably declared to be shipped for Vladivostok, but the cargoes are discharged secretly before reaching that port. The ships found to be engaged in this traffic in the year 1929 were of Chinese or Japanese r e g i s t t y . The total number of chests transported was 2,320. The Japanese representative informed the Committee that his Government had been giving the most serious attention to the matter, but wrere faced by considerable difficulties in putting a stop to the employment of Japanese ships. The usual practice appears to be for a ship to be chartered by a Chinese subject wrhose intentions with regard to the use of the ship are not known to the Japanese ow'ners. The directions are given to the master by the Chinese charterer or his representative after the vessel has left Japanese waters and the cargo of opium is discharged before the vessel re-enters Japanese waters. In cases wiiere evidence has been laid before the Japanese authorities as to the use of the ship in this way, the authorities have taken action against the master of the vessel by suspending his certificate. The Japanese Government recognises that further measures are necessary if the traffic is to be prevented and is continuing to study the question.

Turkey. — The Committee is informed that the Turkish Government has taken measures to strengthen its internal control over the traffic in drugs, and it hopes that this action on the

1 2 —

part of the Turkish Government will have a beneficial effect upon the drug situation in the Levant. I t regrets, however, to note that Turkey has not yet ratified the Hague and Geneva Conventions. I t understands that the chief obstacle in the way of such ratification is the fear of the Turkish Government that the ratification of the Conventions may compeLa reduction in the production of opium, which is one of Turkey’s chief exports. This appears to indicate that the Turkish authorities are under a misapprehension as to the obligations imposed by the Conventions. They contain no provision which would require the Turkish Government to restrict the cultivation of opium for legitimate purposes ; and, so far as the Committee is aware, no appreciable part of the Turkish opium output finds its way into the illicit traffic. The Committee therefore suggests that the Council might perhaps see its way to approach the Turkish Government on the matter, explaining to it the exact scope of the Conventions and inviting it to ratify both the Hague and the Geneva Conventions and to co-operate with the League in the suppression of the illicit traffic.

S i t u a t i o n i n Ce n t r a l a n d S o u t h A m e r i c a .

The Committee, in an earlier part of its report, had occasion to call the attention of the Council to the position of the countries of Central and South America as regards the ratification of the Hague and Geneva Conventions and the furnishing of annual reports to the League. The Committee considers that full collaboration on the part of the Governments of these countries in the League’s work in regard to the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs is of the greatest importance. The reports of seizures which it has received from time to time show that some of these countries are used by the illicit traffickers as channels through which drugs are smuggled and it notes that, as, for example, in the case of Uruguay, the abuse of drugs has become a serious problem.

One of the countries which appears to be used as a country of transit by illicit traffickers is Mexico. The Mexican Government has shown an active interest in the matter of control over the trade in drugs in its territory and it is collaborating with the League by furnishing an annual report on the conditions in Mexico. In these circumstances and in view of the geographical situation of Mexico, the Committee is disposed to think that the presence of an observer on behalf of the Mexican Government at the meetings of the Committee would be of advantage both to the Mexican Government and to the Committee, and it ventures to suggest to the Council tha t an invitation in that sense should be sent to the Government of Mexico.

R e v i s e d F o r m o f A n n u a l R e p o r t s .

In view of the establishment under the terms of the Geneva Convention of the Permanent Central Opium Board, which will in future receive the statistical information as to manufacture, imports, exports, etc., hitherto furnished to the Advisory Committee, the Committee has revised the form for the annual reports of the Governments which they prepared in 1922 and appends the revised form, together with the explanatory report of the Sub-Committee appointed to consider the matter.

The Committee suggests that copies of the form of annual reports should in future be sent by the Secretary-General to the Governments each year with his annual reminder letter regarding the despatch of annual reports.

I m p o r t Ce r t i f i c a t e S y s t e m .

The Committee considered certain questions relating to the working of the import certificate system and adopted the conclusions indicated in the report of the Sub-Committee, which is annexed.

The Committee was asked by the representative of Great Britain for its opinion on the following point :

When a country which is not a party to the Geneva Convention has expressed its willingness to furnish import certificates if desired, does an obligation rest upon the countries which are parties to the Convention under Article 18 to require the production of such a certificate before sanctioning exports to that country ?

The members of the Committee were not agreed upon the question whether the Convention involved the legal obligation to require a certificate in the circumstances indicated, but they were in agreement that, in a case where a country which is not a party to the Convention is willing to give an import certificate, the exporting country should require the production of such a certificate before sanctioning exports to tha t country, whilst reserving its own right to judge of the value of the certificate so furnished.

The Committee asked the Secretariat to furnish it with detailed information regarding the countries which, although not parties to the Geneva Convention, are prepared to furnish import certificates.

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I n f o r m a t i o n r e g a r d i n g t h e I m p o r t C e r t i f i c a t e S y s t e m , e t c .

The Committee also asked the Secretariat to prepare a memorandum for the convenience of Governments containing: (i) a list of the countries which have adopted the import certificate system (giving as far as practicable date of acceptance of the system or of ratification of the Geneva Convention, and date or dates of enforcing legislation or regulations) ; (2) the names and addresses of the Government departments authorised to issue or receive import certificates or to issue or receive export authorisations ; (3) lists of the towns, ports, or other localities through which the export or import of raw opium, coca leaves, or narcotic drugs is permitted; and (4) a list of the Government departments authorised to exchange information with regard to illicit traffic and seizures.

The Committee requests the Council to empower the Secretariat to obtain such information from the Governments as may be necessary for the completion of the memorandum in question.

E x a m i n a t i o n o f t h e M e t h o d s i n U s e i n V a r i o u s C o u n t r i e s f o r t h e R e n t i n g

o f P o s t a l B o x e s .

The Committee desires to tender its thanks to the Universal Postal Union for the help it has afforded the Committee in this matter, as well as for the valuable documentary material it has placed at the Committee’s disposal.

The Committee decided to draw the attention of the Governments to the recommendation it has already put forward with regard to this matter in its report on the work of the twelfth session, and to defer consideration of this question to the next session in order that the Secretariat should be able to supplement its documentary material and to prepare a document giving full information regarding the methods in use in the various countries.

L i s t o f D r u g s a n d P r e p a r a t i o n s f a l l i n g u n d e r t h e H a g u e a n d G e n e v a C o n v e n t i o n s .

The Committee received the report of the Committee of Experts appointed to prepare, for the use of Governments and in particular the Customs authorities, a list of the drugs and preparations falling within the Hague and Geneva Conventions and desires to acknowledge its indebtedness to Dr. Carrière and his colleagues. It recommends that the report should be circulated as a provisional document to the Governments for consideration and completion.

H a g u e C o n v e n t i o n o f 1 9 12 . G e n e v a C o n v e n t i o n o f 1 9 2 5 .

Codification of Conventions. — Resolution adopted by the Tenth Assembly in September 1929 and referred by the Secretariat to the Advisory Committee in accordance with a resolution adopted by the Council at its fifty-eighth session.

The Committee decided that it was impossible to codify the Hague and Geneva Conventions so long as countries, such as the United States of America and China, are parties to the Hague Convention and not to the Geneva Convention.

B u d g e t .

The Committee approved a budget for 1931, the total of the expenditure under this budget being the same as tha t for the preceding year.

P r e p a r a t i o n o f a L i s t o f L a w s o n t h e C o n t r o l o f t h e T r a f f i c i n N a r c o t i c s .

The Committee's attention was drawn to the recommendation adopted by the Fifth Committee of the Assembly requesting the Secretariat to prepare a list of all the laws and regulations at present in force in the several countries regarding the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs, with a view to preparing ultimately a summary or digest of such legislation in order to render the application of the Geneva and Hague Conventions both easier and more effective.

The Committee has instructed the Secretariat to continue to study the existing laws and, if necessary, to apply to Governments for supplementary information regarding their laws on the subject.

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LIST OF APPENDICES.

Page

1. List of Ratifications, etc., to the Hague Convention................................................ 15

2. Agreement drawn up by the First Opium Conference, February n th , 1925 :List of Signatures, Ratifications and A ccessions ........................................... 16

3. Convention drawn up by the Second Opium Conference, February 19th, 1925 :List of Signatures, Ratifications and A ccessions........................................... 17

4. Statement with regard to Annual Reports received from Governments Membersof the League and Parties to the Hague Opium Convention of 1912 andto the Geneva Opium Convention of 1 9 2 5 .................................. 18

5. Report of the Sub-Committee on Lim itation of Manufacture (documentO.C.1158)....................................................................................................................... 20

6. List of Factories authorised to Manufacture Drugs covered by the GenevaOpium Convention, Chapter I I I (document O .C .1 1 4 3 ).................................. 24

7. Revised Form of Annual Reports by Governments (document 0.0.23(3)) • • 32

8. Report of the Sub-Committee appointed to consider Items 10, n and. 14 ofthe Agenda (Relations with Central Permanent Board ; Form of Annual Reports ; Im port Certificate System) (document O .C.1169)..................... 34

9.. Shipments of Persian Opium known to have been shipped from the Ports ofBushire and Mohammerah during the period December 1st, 1928, to November 30th, 1929 (document O.C.4i7(m)).................................................... 37

O. C. 1127.

Appendix 1.

THE HAGUE OPIUM CONVENTION OF 1912.

L i s t o f R a t i f i c a t i o n s , e t c .

RatificationsSignatures of Protocol

putting Convention into force

Albania AlbaniaAustralia AustraliaAustria AustriaBelgium BelgiumBolivia BoliviaB razil1 Brazil1Bulgaria BulgariaCanada CanadaChile ChileChina ChinaColombia ColombiaCosta R ica1 Costa Rica 1Cuba CubaCzechoslovakia CzechoslovakiaD anzig1 Denmark DenmarkDominican Republic Ecuador1 Ecuador1

1 Not a Member of the League.

— i 6 —

Signatures of Protocol Ratifications putting Convention into force.

EstoniaFinlandFranceGermanyGreat BritainGreeceGuatemalaHaitiHondurasHungaryIceland 1IndiaIrish Free StateItalyJapanLatviaLiberiaLuxemburgMexico1Monaco 1NetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaNorwayPanamaPeruPolandPortugalRoumaniaSalvadorKingdom of the Serbs,

Croats and Slovenes Siam Spain Sweden Switzerland Union of South Africa United States of America 1 Uruguay Venezuela

FinlandFranceGermanyGreat BritainGreeceGuatemalaHaitiHondurasHungaryIceland 1IndiaIrish Free StateI ta lyJapanLatviaLiberiaLuxemburgMexico 1Monaco 1NetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaNorwayPanamaPeruPolandPortugalRoumaniaSalvadorKingdom of the Serbs,

Croats and Slovenes Siam Spain Sweden SwitzerlandUnion of South Africa United States of America 1 Uruguay Venezuela

Appendix 2.

AGREEMENT DRAWN UP BY THE FIRST OPIUM CONFERENCE,

FEBRUARY i i t h , 1925.

L i s t o f S i g n a t u r e s , R a t i f i c a t i o n s a n d A c c e s s i o n s .

Agreement

FranceGreat BritainIndiaJapanNetherlandsPortugalSiam

SignaturesProtocol

France Great Britain India JapanNetherlandsPortugalSiam

Final Act


Rati fications A greement Protocol

FranceGreat BritainIndiaJapanNetherlandsPortugalSiam


1 Not a Member of the League.

— 17 —

Appendix 3.

CONVENTION DRAWN UP BY THE SECOND OPIUM CONFERENCE,

FEBRUARY 1 9 T H , 1 9 2 5 .

L i s t o f S i g n a t u r e s , R a t i f i c a t i o n s a n d A c c e s s i o n s .

Ratifications Convention ProtocolConvention

AlbaniaAustraliaAustriaBelgium

Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile Cuba Czecho

slovakia Denmark France Germany Great Britain Greece Hungary India Irish Free

State Japan Latvia Luxemburg Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Persia Poland Portugal Kingdom of the

Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Siam Spain Sudan Switzerland Union of

South Africa Uruguay

SignaturesProtocol

AlbaniaAustralia

BulgariaCanadaChileCubaCzecho

slovakia

Germany Great Britain Greece

India

JapanLatviaLuxemburgNetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaPersia

Portugal Kingdom of the


Siam

Sudan

Union ofSouth Africa

Final Act

AlbaniaAustralia

BelgiumBoliviaBrazilBulgaria

Cuba Czecho

slovakia Denmark France Germany Great Britain Greece Hungary India Irish Free

State Japan

LuxemburgNetherlands

Nicaragua Persia Poland Portugal Kingdom of the


Siam Spain

Switzerland

Uruguay

AustraliaAustriaBelgium

BulgariaCanada

Czechoslovakia

France Germany Great Britain Greece

India

Japan Latvia Luxemburg Netherlands New Zealand

Poland Portugal Kingdom of the


Siam Spain Sudan Switzerland Union of

South Africa

Australia

BulgariaCanada

Czechoslovakia

Germany Great Britain Greece

India

Japan Latvia Luxemburg Netherlands New7 Zealand

Portugal Kingdom of the


Siam

Sudan

Union of South Africa

Accessions

Bolivia 1 (ad referendum and under reservations) MonacoDanzig RoumaniaDominican Republic SalvadorEgypt San MarinoFinland VenezuelaItaly

1 Bolivia will no t u n d e r ta k e to res tr ic t th e cu l t iv a tio n and p roduction of coca in th e co un try o r to forbid the use of coca leaves am ong th e n a t iv e popu la tion .

E x p o r t of coca leaves will be un d er th e contro l of th e Boliv ian G overnm en t by m eans of a n expo rt certificate.

As regards th e e x p o r t of coca, the B oliv ian G o v ern m en t has au thorised th e following places of export : Villazon, Y acuiba, A nto fagasta , A rica and Mollendo.

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Appendix 4.

STATEMENT W ITH REGARD TO ANNUAL REPORTS RECEIVED FROM GOVERNMENTS MEMBERS OF THE LEAGUE AND PARTIES TO THE OPIUM

CONVENTIONS OF 1912 and 1925.

X denotes tha t a report has been received.— denotes tha t no report has been received.

1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928Albania...................... Letter despatched to Secretariat on March 10th, 1923. -—

Cannot answer questions in annual report form.Dangerous drugs only used for medical purposes.

Argentine......... — — — — X — —A ustralia................... — X X X X X XA ustria....................... X X X X X X XBelgium..................... X X X X X X XBolivia....................... X — — — — — XBrazil......................... X — — — — — XBulgaria..................... — X X — X X XCanada....................... X X X X X X XChile........................... X X — — ■ — — XChina......................... X — — X — — X

Colombia................... — — — — — — —

Costa R ica............... — — — — — X XCuba........................... X X — X X X —

Czechoslovakia........ — X X X X X XD a n z ig ...................... — X X X X X XDenm ark................... X X X X X X XDominican Republic Letter despatched to the Secre

ta ria t on January 10th, 1924. No manufacture. Imports chiefly from France and the United States

Ecuador..................... — _ _ X _

Estonia...................... X X X X X X XE thiopia.................... Letter despatched to the Secretariat

on October 23rd, 1923. No manufacture, consumption or traffic. Small quantities im ported for medical purposes.

F inland...................... — X X X X X XFrance....................... — X X X X X XG erm any................... — — — X X X XGreat Britain ........ X X X X X X XGreece........................ X X X X X X XGuatem ala........ X — — — — — —

H aiti2......................... Letter despatched to the Secretariat on January 8th, 1924. No year stated, but annual imports, exports and consumption given.

H onduras.................. — — — — — — —

H ungary.................... X X X X X X XIceland....................... — — — — — — XIndia.......................... X X X X X X XIrish Free S ta te . . . . — — — — — — —

I t a l y ......................... X — X X X X XJapan ....................... X X X X X X XL atvia........................ — — — X X X XLiberia....................... Letters despatched May 8th, 1923,

and February 20th, 1924. No traffic in the country.

L ithuania.................. X X X XLuxemburg............... — — — — X — XMexico 3..................... — — — — X X X

1 The rep o r t covers in p a r t 1927-1929.

2 R e p o rt received for 1929.

3 F irs t four m on ths of 1928.

— IQ —

1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928

Monaco .................... Letter despatched on November 8th,1923. No year given1. (See documentO.C.23(/).8.) X X

Netherlands.............. X X X X X X XNew Zealand........... X X X X X X XNicaragua ............... — — — — X — —Norway ................... X X X X X X XPanam a..................... X X X

Paraguay................... — — — — — — —Persia......................... X — — — — — XPeru ........................... — — — — — — —Poland....................... X X X X X X XPortugal.................... — — — X X X XRoum ania................. X X X X X X —Salvador.................... No yeai• given. General informa- — — —

tion despatched to the Secre-tariat on June 20th, 1923.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia — — — X X X XSiam................................. X X X X X X XSpain................................ — X X X X X XSweden............................. X X X X X X XSwitzerland..................... Statistics for 1921,1922 and X 1 X X X

1923 sent by Dr. Car-rière (document O.C.206).

Union of South Africa . X X X X X X XUnited States of America X X X X X X XU ruguay............................. — — — — — —• XVenezuela.......................... — — — — — — x 2

STATEMENT W ITH REGARD TO ANNUAL REPORTS RECEIVED FROM THE MORE IMPORTANT COLONIES, POSSESSIONS OR TERRITO RIES BELONGING TO STATES

MEMBERS OF THE LEAGUE.

1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 192:British :

Ceylon...................... X X X X X X XHong-Kong............. X X X X X X XMalay States

(Federated) X X X X X X XMalay States

(Unfederated) X X X X X X XStraits Settlements X X X X X X X

French :

Indo-China.............. X X X X X X X

Japanese :

Chosen..................... X X X X X X XForm osa.................. X X X X X X XK wantung............... X X X X X X X

Netherlands :

NetherlandsEast Indies . . . . X X X X X X X

Portuguese :

M acao ..................... X X X X X X X

1 Im p o r t and e x p o r t for th e last five m onths of 1925 only.2 Q u arte r ly s ta t is t ic s of im p o rts only.

— 20 —

Appendix 5 .

REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON LIMITATION OF MANUFACTURE.

I . I n t r o d u c t i o n .

1. The Sub-Committee presents the following report on the subject referred to it by the Advisory Committee. The report includes both an outline of a plan for giving effect to the resolution of the Assembly and a discussion of certain questions which arise upon it. The Sub-Committee has considered the various suggestions tha t have been placed before it and examined the material which has been prepared by the Secretariat.1 Valuable assistance has been given by the two members of the Central Board, Mr. Lyall and Dr. Anselmino, who have attended all the meetings.

2. Any plan for the limitation of the manufacture of the drugs referred to in the Assembly's resolution depends for success on the support of the non-manufacturing countries, or the great majority of them, as well as on the adhesion of the manufacturing countries. The Sub-Committee has felt entitled to proceed on the assumption that any workable plan will receive the general support of the non-manufacturing countries, in view of the fact that the report of the Fifth Committee on the question of limitation and the resolution which that Committee submitted were unanimously approved by the Assembly, which included representatives from all but a few of the non-manufacturing countries. It is true that one of the most important manufacturing countries, the United States of America, was not a party to tha t resolution and is not officially represented on the Advisory Committee, but the Sub-Committee feels assured that any workable plans for limitation of manufacture will receive sympathetic consideration from the Government of the United States of America. I t has also to be borne in mind that the present policy of the United States of America places very severe restrictions on the export of the drugs, with the result tha t the drug manufacturers in that country do not supply, except to a very small extent, the world market.

3. In the general discussion which took place in the Advisory Committee, three fundamental points were indicated and the plan prepared by the Sub-Committee can most conveniently be presented by reference to them. These three points were : (i) the fixation of the total amount of the drugs to be manufactured annually; (ii) the allocation of that amount between the manufacturing countries ; (iii) the distribution of that amount so as to ensure tha t each consuming country receives the amount required for its medical and scientific needs.

II. P l a n .

4. Fixation of the World production.(i) An estimate of its requirements for medical and scientific purposes in respect of the

drugs referred to in the Assembly’s resolution during the ensuing year should be furnished annually by each country.

Countries which convert morphine into codeine will be asked to include separately in their estimate the amount of morphine they wish to manufacture or import for the purpose of such conversion (see paragraph 11 infra).

(ii) If a country does not furnish an estimate, an estimate will be made by the central authority designated in the Convention to be concluded.

(iii) The total of these estimates will be the amount to be manufactured during the year to which they refer.

(iv) The estimates should be furnished by a date (to be fixed by the Convention) which will allow the total world manufacture for the ensuing year to be ascertained not less than ( months before the commencement of that year.

1 See docum ents :

R ecords of th e T en th O rd ina ry Session of th e Assembly, M inutes of th e F if th C om m ittee, Official Journal, Special S upp lem en t No. 80.

R e p o rt of th e O pium P re p a ra to ry C om m ittee (docum ent C.4T5.M.149.1925.XI).Scheme for lim iting th e O u tp u t o f M anufactu red D rugs, su b m itte d b y Mr. C. K. Crane (docum ent

C.1.M .1.1929.XI).Brief O utline of an In te rn a tio n a l N arcotics M anufactu re A greem ent, designed to effect an A ppropria te L i m i t a t i o n

of th e W orld ’s O u tp u t of M anufactu red D rags, d raw n up b y Mr. C. K . Crane (docum ent O.C.1070}.G eneral Princip les w hich m ay be ta k e n as a Basis fo r the P re p a ra tio n of a C onvention on the L im ita tio n and

R a tion ing of th e M anufacture of N arco tic Drugs, su b m itte d b y M. Bourgois fo r th e consideration of the C om m ittee (docum ent O.C.1138).

Sub-C om m ittee on th e L im ita tio n of M anufacture : L e t te r from th e Chinese R ep resen ta tiv e to th e C h a i r m a n (docum ent O .C ./sc.L /i).

Syndicate of Cocaine a n d M orphine M anufacturers : L e tte rs from M. v an W ettu m , D r. K ah ler a n d Dr. Carrière (docum ent O.C.1133).

Sum m ary of A nnual R ep o rts from G overnm ents (docum ent O.C.1072).S ta tis tics of th e M anufacture of N arco tic D rugs: R e p o rt p rep ared b y D r. Anselm ino a t th e req u es t of the

S ecre ta ria t (docum ent O.C.1109, an d A nnex O.C.1109(6)).Ibid. : L e tte r fro m Sir Jo h n C am pbell (docum ent O.C.1109(a)).L is t of Fac tories au thorised to M anufacture D rugs covered b y th e G eneva C onvention (C hapter III)

(docum ent O.C. 1143).W orld Consum ption of O piates an d Cocaine : M em orandum p rep ared b y t h e H e a lth Section of th e L e a g u e of

N a tions S ecre ta ria t (docum ent O.C.1112).Ibid. : M em orandum p rep ared b y Dr. W asserberg, m em ber of th e H e a lth Section (docum ent O .C . /S C .L /2 ) ) .

— 2 1 —

(v) The estimates will be binding—that is, it will not be permissible for the country to import more in the course of the year than it has estimated; but it will be open to the Government of a country at any time, in case of need, to furnish a revised estimate, with an explanation of the circumstances which justify the revision, and the revised estimate will thereupon be substituted for the original estimate. Arrangements will be necessary for notifying the change to the manufacturing countries.

(vi) The Governments will be asked to base their estimates on as exact an ascertainment as possible of the actual consumption of the drugs for medical and scientific purposes in their territory at the time. If the estimate includes a margin to cover possible fluctuations of demand, the Government should be asked to state what margin they have allowed.

(vii) I t will be permissible to include in the estimate the amount required for (a) the establishment, or (b) the maintenance of such Government reserve stocks as the Government considers necessary in the interests of the State, whether for purely Government use or for general use to meet exceptional circumstances such as the occurrence of an epidemic. This amount should, however, be stated separately in the estimate.

(viii) These estimates will not be subject to revision by the central authority mentioned above, but it will be open to that authority to ask for explanations from the Government concerned in the case of any estimate that appears to be extravagant.

5. Allocation of the World Production between the Manufacturing Countries.

(i) The allocation of the quotas will be a matter for arrangement either between the Governments of the manufacturing countries or between the manufacturers themselves with the approval of their Governments.

(ii) Unless otherwise agreed by the manufacturing countries, the allocation would be based on the present normal production of the manufacturing countries for medical and scientific purposes. Production which has gone to supply the illicit traffic would, so far as it can be estimated, be excluded.

(iii) The Government of each manufacturing country should undertake in the proposed Convention to enforce the quota allocated to it, that is, to limit the production of the drugs by its manufacturers during the year to the amount allocated.

(iv) Each manufacturing country would be entitled to make, if it so desires, the amounts of drugs required for its own medical and scientific needs, and to have its quota fixed on this basis.

(v) Should a country not at present manufacturing the drugs propose in the future to undertake such manufacture, it is not prevented from doing so, but should be required to give not less than ( ) months notice of its intention to the central authority mentioned above, in order that a re-adjustment of the quotas may be made. If it is proposed that the new factory shall produce only for the domestic needs of the country, the re-adjustment will involve merely a proportionate reduction of the amounts allocated to the existing manufacturing countries. If, however, it is proposed that the new factory shall produce for the export trade as well as for domestic needs, negotiations with all the manufacturing countries would become necessary, and should be undertaken before the new factory is established.

6. Control of Distribution.

(i) Full liberty would be preserved for every country to send its orders to whatever country or firm it pleased. No obligation would be placed on a country to state in advance where it proposed to obtain the drugs or the medical preparations containing the drugs which it may require.

(ii) Before the Government of the country to which an order is sent grants an authorisation for the export of the consignment, it must be satisfied that the country from which the order has come is entitled to receive the quantity ordered. To make this possible there must be some central office which will be kept currently informed of all orders received and supplies made. On application, this office would furnish a note, for production to the Government of the country to which the order was sent, stating whether or not the order would or would not cause an excess over the estimate furnished by the country from which the order came.

(iii) The constitution and maintenance of this central office will be a matter in the first instance for the consideration of the Governments of the supplying countries. (The phrase “ supplying countries ” is used and not “ manufacturing countries ” because it may be there will be some countries which, by reason of their having a business in the manufacture of medicinal preparations or for other reasons, are important centres of distribution.) I t might possibly take the form of a simple “ information office ” or “ clearing-house ”, established by the countries concerned, or it might form part of the organisation of a manufacturers’ association. In either case, adequate arrangements for independent supervision would be necessary.

III. O b s e r v a t i o n s .

The following observations may be made on the plans above mentioned:

7. In order to ascertain the world’s total requirements for medical and scientific purposes, it is necessary to accept the estimates of the countries themselves as to their needs. It would be impossible to get acceptance of a plan of limitation on any other basis. There is no general

— 2 2 —

standard by which the normal medical requirements of a country can be fixed. Even in countries with a modern system of medicine, the use of the drugs may vary considerably in extent—one country is found to use, for instance, more codeine and less morphine, in another country it is the other way round ; and a very large part of the population of the globe is without any system of the kind.

The memorandum which has been prepared by the Health Section of the League on the “ world consumption of opiates and cocaine” (document O.C.1112) shows how very inadequate the materials are at present for fixing any standards or criteria even for groups of countries more or less homogeneous in their character. I t may be, and indeed it is probable, that in the first instance countries may fix their estimates too high. Until some experience has been obtained of the working of the new system and until they are able to ascertain with greater exactness the actual consumption in their territories, they will wish, naturally enough, to be “ on the safe side ”. This may result, for the first year or two under the new system, in the total figure of manufacture being fixed higher, even considerably higher, than is actually needed for medical and scientific purposes. This should be a purely temporary phase. Assuming the existence of an adequate internal control, a Government which has over-estimated will quickly find this out; either the orders will not reach the level of the estimate or else there will be larger stocks than are necessary in hand at the end of the year. Moreover, while the evidence as to the rates of consumption in various countries does not permit any definite standards to be laid down, it is sufficient to afford certain indications which can be used as rough tests or criteria for judging whether an estimate is extravagant or not, and under the new system the evidence will rapidly become much more complete and precise. A country which continues to indulge in extravagant estimates, in the face of such evidence and the example of other countries similarly circumstanced, will find it hard to justify its action to the League.

No reference has been made in connection with the framing of estimates to the question of “ working stocks ”, A country must always " carry ” a certain stock of the drugs for the purpose of manufacturing medical preparations, supplying medical needs and the like. At the time when the new system comes into force, each country will be carrying its “ working stock ”, and no special provision, therefore, need be made for it in the estimate unless, owing to some exceptional cause, the " working stock ” has fallen much below its normal amount.

While the plan does not ask the Governments in their estimates to distinguish between stocks held by the Government for State purposes and stocks held by it for other purposes, it may be mentioned that, under Article 22 of the Geneva Convention, separate returns are required to be made to the Central Board after the close of the year of (a) stocks held by the Government for consumption in the country for other than Government purposes, and (b) the amounts imported or purchased for Government purposes ; and it is provided in the same article that substances held by the Government for eventual sale are not regarded as held for Government purposes.

The question has been raised whether, under a system of limitation, it will be possible to meet a sudden demand—created, say, by an epidemic—for a greatly increased supply of the drugs. The answer is that it will be open to a Government to maintain a reserve of drugs to meet such an emergency if it thinks the circumstances of its country (e.g., its distance from the countries of manufacture) make it desirable to do so. The working stocks in hand at any moment, together with any Government stocks, would constitute a reserve which would be available until fresh supplies could be obtained. In such circumstances it must be remembered that a Government will be entitled to revise its estimate.

The constitution of the central authority indicated in the first part of the proposed plan is left for later consideration. One of the League organs, such as the Advisory Opium Committee or the Permanent Central Board established under the Geneva Convention, with their secretariat, might possibly be utilised, though for the determination of an estimate in the case of a country which does not furnish one, the assistance of the Health Committee and its secretariat would also be valuable.

8. The Sub-Committee considers that it is very important for the success of the Conference, and will greatly facilitate the wrork of the Conference, that the Governments of the manufacturing countries, or the manufacturers themselves, should consider, in advance, the allocation of the quotas and the arrangements for ensuring a proper distribution of the drugs produced among the consuming countries. There are also a number of subsidiary questions, such as the period for which the allocation shall hold good and the date and manner of its revision from time to time, the transfer of orders, etc., which are matters concerning primarily the manufacturing countries and can best be discussed by them. The Sub-Committee suggests, therefore, that the Council should invite the manufacturing countries to confer together on these matters and to endeavour to arrive at an agreement before the Conference meets. There is good reason for hoping that an agreement can be arrived at in this way.

It might be useful for the representatives of the manufacturing countries or manufacturers to be able to consult with representatives of the Advisory Committee or Central Board on any points affecting the relations of the manufacturers, under any arrangements that may be proposed, with the League ; and the Sub-Committee hopes the Chairman of the Advisory Committee and the Chairman of the Central Board would be prepared to act in that capacity if necessary.

— 2 3 —

The Sub-Committee recognises that the determination of quotas on the basis of present production for legitimate medical and scientific purposes may be a difficult matter. I t thinks, however, tha t an exhaustive analysis of exports will throw a good deal of light on the amounts that have been going into the illicit traffic, and it recommends that such an analysis should be undertaken. It also considers that there is good reason for hoping that—with the much stricter control now being exercised over manufacture—the production for the current year in the several manufacturing countries will approximate much more closely to the real production for medical and scientific purposes.

9. It will be observed that under the plan full liberty is preserved to each individual State to purchase its medical requirements where it desires and in whatever form it desires. The Sub- Committee considers this to be an essential part of any plan for limitation. The medical profession in the various countries will insist, and rightly insist, that they are the best judges of the medical preparations required, and that they must not be prevented from obtaining whatever preparations they may from time to time consider necessary. The Sub-Committee has accordingly not felt able to recommend the adoption of a proposal that Governments should undertake to specify before the commencement of each year the countries from which they will obtain their requirements during the ensuing year.

The Sub-Committee has considered whether the liberty reserved to each country to purchase its requirements where it wishes will cause any difficulties in the working of the other provisions of the plan under which a definite quota of production will be assigned to each manufacturing country, and whether any special arrangements may be required to meet those difficulties. It sees no reason at present to apprehend any serious difficulties. So far as the pure drugs (i.e., the alkaloids and salts) are concerned, there is practically no difference between the quality of the drugs produced by the various manufacturing countries, and no reason therefore for preferring the make of one country to that of another. If, therefore, a country receives orders, say, for morphine hydrochloride, to an amount which it is unable to supply, the difficulty can be got over either by it purchasing morphine hydrochloride from another manufacturing country or by passing on the order for such amount as it is unable to supply to another country. If an agreement is come to between the manufacturers, an arrangement for dealing with cases of this sort wall no doubt form part of it. The case is different with medical preparations containing drugs. The drugs enter into a very large number of " specialities ” prepared by the great firms of " manufacturing chemists ” and a considerable proportion of the total amount of the drugs used for medical purposes is used in these forms. Will the individual countries, under the plan outlined, be able to obtain all the supplies of particular preparations that they desire or, in other words, will the firms manufacturing those preparations be able to obtain the quantity of, say, morphine they require for meeting the demands for their preparations ? The answer seems to be that, under the ordinary laws of trade, they will be able. The quantity of morphine required for preparations will be included in the estimates of the individual countries and therefore in the total figure of world production, and it will naturally find its way to the firms who make the preparations in proportion to the orders which they receive. All such movements of the drugs would, it need not be said, be made under the full control provided for in the Geneva Convention.

io. The Assembly resolution desired the Advisory Committee, in preparing its plans, to have regard to the “ means of preventing an increase in price which would lead to the establishment of new factories in countries which are not a t present manufacturing countries . It may be that a limitation of production will entail some increase in the costs of production, but the Sub-Committee sees no reason to suppose that any increase which will accrue will lead to the establishment of factories for the supply of drugs for legitimate purposes in new7 countries. In these countries, also, owing to the limitation of the total quantity made, the production costs will, in general, be equally affected. Moreover, in medicine the drugs are used in doses so small that any additional cost to the patient will be fractional. I t seems to the Sub-Committee much more likely that if, as is possible, the adoption of the plan of limitation leads to the establishment of new factories, it will be because of the desire of those wTho are making at present large piofits out of the illicit traffic to obtain the supplies which will enable them to continue to make those profits and probably (because of the difficulty in obtaining the drugs) much larger piofits; and that the factories will be established where no control, or no effective control, is exercised.

i i . In the course of the Sub-Committee’s discussions, the question was asked whether it would be possible to limit the manufacture of morphine and heroin without also bringing codeine under the same system of control as those drugs. Codeine is not regarded in most countries as a habit-forming drug and a proposal to include it with the habit-forming drugs under the provisions of Chapter III of the Geneva Convention was rejected by the International Conference. Three arguments were advanced for placing codeine under the same control as morphine and heroin. One was that codeine is used as a substitute for the other drugs and its use is extending; that, unless its consumption can be ascertained, it will be impossible to check any country’s estimate of its requirements of morphine and heroin, and that its consumption in any country can only be ascertained by bringing the trade in it in some wray under control.

— 2 4 —

Another argument was that, as long as codeine can be bought and sold, imported and exported without any supervision or control, it will always be possible for a dishonest manufacturer of morphine to buy codeine, to pretend that he has converted the morphine which he has made into the codeine and to sell his morphine to the illicit trafficker. The third argument was that codeine can be used for the production of eucodal and dicodide, both of them habit-forming drugs which the Health Committee of the League has, in pursuance of Article 10 of the Geneva Convention, recommended should be brought under the Convention. I t was pointed out, on the other hand, that Governments would certainly encounter most serious opposition to any attempt to bring non-habit-forming drugs under the same severe restrictions as the dangerous habit-forming drugs; and that it should be borne in mind that the fact that codeine is exempt from the restrictions applied to habit-forming drugs encourages its substitution in medical practice for the dangerous drugs. As regards the difficulty of estimation of morphine and heroin requirements unless the codeine consumption were known, it was pointed out that the difficulty is not an isolated one—the same difficulty would arise in the case of cocaine, for which various non-habit- forming substitutes have been devised; and that, in fact, a good deal of information is available as regards the consumption of codeine. The production in each country which makes it can be ascertained by the Government and it could no doubt be arranged that information as to the export of codeine by the manufacturers and wholesalers could also be made available. As regards the second argument, it was thought that fraud of the kind suggested, if carried out on the scale that would make it worth while, would not be difficult of detection; that a substantial firm would be very unlikely to risk the loss of its licence and consequent damage to its business which detection would entail; and that the most effective safeguard is proper care on the part of the Government in the issue of licences and control of the factories. As regards the third argument, it was pointed out that, if eucodal and dicodide are brought under the Geneva Convention, they cannot be manufactured without a licence, that particulars of their production and of the “ raw material ” used in their production must be furnished to the Central Board; and that, while eucodal and dicodide can be produced from codeine in the laboratory, their production from codeine has not proved commercially practicable and they are in fact being made from thebaine.

The Sub-Committee considers that any country which manufactures codeine should be asked to state separately in its annual estimate the amount of morphine it proposes to make or to import for the purpose of conversion into codeine; but they do not think it advisable to include in the plan any further provisions with regard to codeine.

12. Another question raised was whether the obligation of furnishing a binding estimate might not make it necessary for a Government to institute some form of rationing for the firms dealing in the drugs, to prevent “ cornering ”, ensure proper distribution of the drugs to meet medical requirements and the like. I t was felt that difficulties of this kind might arise if an under-estimate or a very close estimate were furnished by a Government of its requirements, but that this was not likely to occur. I t may be assumed that, if supplies are adequate for a country's needs, trade distribution will go on as at present and rationing will be unnecessary. I t will not be to the interest of the wholesalers to let some of their customers go short while others get more than they require—and, should the need arise, the Government has it always in its power by means of the licence system to control the action of the wholesalers.

13. The Sub-Committee thinks it very desirable that, before the Conference meets, information should be obtained for the guidance of the Conference as to the rate of manufacture during the current year, and suggests that the Council be asked to take steps for that purpose.

Appendix 6.

LIST OF FACTORIES AUTHORISED TO MANUFACTURE DRUGS COVERED BY THE GENEVA OPIUM CONVENTION (CHAPTER III).

Note by the Secretary.

In pursuance of a decision by the Council of the League of Nations dated March 7th, 1929 ,

the Secretary-General, in his C.L.1 x 9 . 1 9 2 9 .XI of June 8th, 1 9 2 9 , communicated to the Governments a provisional table prepared by the League Secretariat showing the factories authorised to manufacture drugs covered by Chapter III of the Geneva Opium Convention. The Secretary- General, on behalf of the Council, requested the Governments to be so good as to verify and c o m p l e t e

the table so far as concerned their respective countries, indicating in particular which of the drugs falling under the Opium Convention of 1 9 2 5 each factory was licensed to manufacture, w h e t h e r

it was in fact engaged in such manufacture and, if so, what drugs it was actually manufacturing.

— 2 5 —

On the basis of the replies of the above-mentioned circular letter (and other documents mentioned) received from the various Governments, the Secretariat has drawn up the following two lists :

I. L i s t o f Co u n t r ie s w h ic h h a v e d e c l a r e d t h a t t h e y d o n o t p o s s e s s F a c t o r ie s

AUTHORISED TO MANUFACTURE THE D R U G S COVERED BY TH E CO N V EN TIO N , W ITH ANY

O b s e r v a t io n s w h ic h t h o s e Co u n t r ie s h a v e a t t a c h e d t o t h e i r D e c l a r a t io n s .

South A fr ic a ............................................................. Letter of July 25th, 1929.A ustralia................................................................. ,, September 2nd, 1929.Belgium 1................................................................B r a z i l .....................................................................Canada....................................................................Colombia................................................................Costa R ic a ............................................................Ecuador .................................................................S p a i n .....................................................................Annual Report for 1928.Estonia 2 ................................................................. Letter of October 22nd, 1929

July 4th, 1929. October 25th, 1929. July 29th, 1929. September 7th, 1929. August 30th, 1929. July 17th, 1929.

LatviaL i th u a n ia ................Mexico........................M o n a c o ....................New Zealand3 . . .P a n a m a ....................Portugal and colonies Dominican Republic.Roumania 4................Siam............................V en ezu e la ................

November 4th, 1929. June 18th, 1929. July 24th, 1929.June 21st, 1929. October 25th, 1929. June 28th, 1929. October 26th, 1929. July 27th, 1929. August 26th, 1929. October 5th, 1929. July 6th, 1929.

II. L is t o f Co u n t r ie s w h ic h h a v e d e c l a r e d t h a t t h e y p o s s e s s F a c t o r ie s a u t h o r is e d to m a n u f a c t u r e D r u g s c o v e r e d b y t h e G e n e v a O p iu m Co n v e n t io n (Ch a p t e r III), w it h t h e R e l e v a n t O b s e r v a t io n s a t t a c h e d t o t h e i r D e c l a r a t io n s .

C ountry Place

Germany.Letter dated Ja- Hamburg,

nuarygth, 1930.(List as at De- Mannheim-Waldhof. cember xst 1929.)

Grenzach (Baden).

Dresden.Ludwigshafen a/Rh.

Darmstadt.

Braunschweig.

Leverkusen (Rheinland.

Factory

C. H. Boehringer Sohn A.G.5

C. F. Boehringer & Sôhne, G.m.b.H.6

Hoffmann, La Roche Co.A.G.5

Gehe & Co.6 Knoll A.G.7

E. Merck.5

Chininfabrik Braun- schweig-Buchler & Co.5

I. G. Farbenindustrie A.G.5

Drugs authorised

Morphine, heroin, cocaine.



Morphine, heroin, cocaine. Morphine, heroin, cocaine,

dicodide 8, dilaudide 8. Morphine, heroin, cocaine,

eucodal 8.Cocaine.

Heroin.

1 “ Several firms m anufactu re on th e basis of these substances officinal p repara tions, such as e x tra c t of opium, opium powder, D over's pow der, tin c tu re of opium , laudanum , fluid e x tra c t of coca, tin c tu re of coca, phials of m orphine, cocaine, d iacety lm orphine an d pastilles an d tab le ts of the sam e su b stan ces .”

2 ” T here is no fa c to ry in E sto n ia au tho rised to m anufactu re dangerous drugs . . . All pharm acies are au thorisedto prepare tin c tu res an d ex tra c ts of opium for th e ir own requ irem en ts and on the basis of a m edical p resc rip tio n . F u rth e r, three p harm aceu tica l labora tories are au thorised to p repare tin c tu res and e x trac ts of opium on rece ip t of a w ritten request from a p h a rm acy or hospital, en tries being m ade in all cases in special registers k e p t for supervision purposes.”

3 " I t is u nderstood t h a t in fo rm ation is n o t requ ired as to firms engaged in com pounding or m aking general p reparations of th e various d ru g s.”

4 “ T here are no factories m an u fac tu rin g drugs. T here are only laboratories au thorised to prepare phials contain ing m orphine, cocaine o r p an to p o n .” These labora tories are th e following :

A. K osom iki, B ucharest. C. Chihaiesco, B ucharest.Soc. Chi m ix, ” Omnia,AI. I te a n u , ” Stanesco,

Th. Vasiliu,

5 " H as m ade fu ll use of th is au th o risa tio n ."6 “ H as n o t m ade use of th is a u th o risa tio n .”7 “ M anufactures m orphine only."8 “ F rom J a n u a ry 1st, 1930.”

Denied, Cluj.Steana, Cluj.Egger, Temisoara.Georges Sava, Plenita (Dept. Dolj.).

— ■ 2 0 —

Country

Austria.

Place

Letter of August Vienna. 23rd, 1929.1

Klagenfurt.

Salzburg.

Weis.

Graz.

Denmark.

Letter of Septem- Copenhagen, ber 25th, 1929.

Factory

Drogengrosshandlung Dr. Blau, Dr. Kusy & Mr. Berger.

C. Brady, Chem.-pharm.Prâparate en gros.

Chemosan - Union und Fritz Petzold A.G.

Oesterreichische Heil- mittelstelle A.G.

Herba Handels A.G.Oesterr. Apotheker.

Pharm. Industrie A.G. D ro g en g ro ssh an d lu n g

Franz Wilhelm & Co. A.G.

Sanabo Chinoin G.m.b.H. Fabrik pharm. Prâparate

Gimbom & Zift'em A.G. Aewige, Aerztliche Wirt-

schafts-Ges.m.b.H.Dr. Wander G.m.b.H. Drogengrosshandlung

C. R. Hatzinger.Chem. pharm. Laborato-

rium zur Austria. Arzneiwarengrosshandlung

F. Maschner. Drogengrosshandlung

Mr.ph.FriedrichDoskar. Chem. pharm. Industrie-

GeseUschaft Engel- apotheke.

D ro g en g ro ssh an d lu n g Paul Hauser.

Pharm. Industrie und Handelsgesellschaft Mr. ph. Klier & Co.

D ro g en g ro ssh an d lu n g C. Richter & Co.

Drogengrosshandlung Mr.ph. F. Gallée & Co.

Chem. pharm. Werke des Landes Steiermark.

Austro - Galenus, chem. pharm. Industrie.G.m.b.H.

Med. Grossdrogerie Mr. ph. Oskar Wollmann.

Alfred Benzon.

Drugs authorised

All narcotic drugs.(See letter under Note 1.

Medicinal opium and all preparations covered by the Convention (Chapter III).

1 “ In accordance w ith $5 of th e Decree of D ecem ber 20th, 1928 (Bundesgesetz-Blatt, No. 362), a copy of which has been du ly fo rw arded to you, a n u m b er o f d ru g firms ob tained fo r 1929 special a u th o risa tio n e ith e r fo r th e production , p repara tion , acqu isition and possession o r on ly fo r th e acquisition an d possession of (trade in) drugs. I send you a list (set fo r th below) of th e firms to w hich these au th o risa tio n s have been g ran ted (in th e p resen t d o cu m en t only th e list of factories au thorised to produce drugs is g iven). These firms, how ever, are as a rule concerned only w ith th e transform ation of th e d rugs in to ph arm aceu tica l p rep ara tio n s, in com bination w ith o th e r substances w hich are n o t covered by th e Opium C onvention of F e b ru a ry 19th, 1925. The firm en titled “ C hem isch-pharm azeutische W erke des L andes S te ierm ark ” produces a p re p ara tio n called “ N eopan ” , w hich con ta ins a ll th e alkaloids of opium in a read ily soluble an d purified form, a n d is based on a c o n te n t of 50 per cen t m o rp h in u m hydrochloricum . T he firms en tit le d " O esterreichische H eilm ittel- stelle ” an d “ C hem osan-U nion und F ritz P e tzo ld A.G. ” produce respectively a t in c tu re an d a fluid e x tra c t from coca leaves.

“ H ith e r to , th ere has been no in d u s try in A u s tria fo r th e e x tra c tio n of p u re alkaloids of op ium an d coca leaves a n d th e ir sa lts a n d deriv a tiv es from th e original substance, o r fo r th e ir p ro d u c tio n b y chem ical m eans.

“ I n these circum stances, a lth o u g h I sen d you a lis t of th e au th o risa tio n s g ran ted , I question w h e th er th is list should be included in t h a t rep ro d u ced in th e A nnex to C .L.119.1929.XI, th e ev id en t o b jec t of w hich is to enum erate on ly th e ac tu a l places w here drugs are m an u fac tu red ” ( le tte r of A ugust 23rd, 1929, from th e F ed e ra l Chancellor).

— 2 7 —

Country Place

Denmark (continued).

Letter of Septem- Copenhagen, her 25th, 1929.

Factory

Det danske Medicinal-og Kemikaliekompagni.

A/S. Nordisk Droge-og Kemikalieforretning.

Fabrique “ Gea

Lovens kemiske Fabrik.”

Drugs authorised

Medicinal Opium and all preparations covered by the Convention (Chapter III).

Preparation analogous to pantopon composed of all alkaloids of opium.

Preparations with a maximum content of 1/10% of heroin and containing 1/5% of opium, of morphine and of cocaine.

Egypt.Letter of October Cairo.

12th, 1929.

United States of America.

Report for 1927- 28,O.C.23(o)i3.1

St. Louis (Mo.).

Rahway,New Jersey.

Philadelphia (Pa.). Borough of Brooklyn,

New York. Maywood, Newr

Jersey.New York.

Finland.

Letter of Septem- Helsinki, ber 21st, 1929.

France.

C.328.M.88.1928. XI. O.C.8x6, page 52.

Tampere.Viipuri.

Paris.

Mulhouse.Paris.

Société anonyme des Drogues d ’Egypte.

Mallinckrodt Chemical Works.

Merck & Co., Inc.

Tincture of opium, Sydenham laudanum, Dover’s powder and chlorodyne.

Morphine.

Morphine, cocaine.Morphine.Morphine.New York Quinine and

Chemical Works.The Maywood Chemical Cocaine.

Works.Hoffmann-La Roche Che- Pantopon

mical Works Incorporated.2

O/Y Medica.O/Y Pharma.O/Y Orion.O/Y Star.Viipurin Rohdoslcauppa

O/Y.

Comptoir français des alcaloïdes.

Société industrielle de Chimie organique.

Société de produits chimiques de l’Ouest.

Société d ’industries chimiques de l’Ouest.

Laboratoire Clin, Comar et Cie.

Roessler, Fils & Cie.Etablissements Roques

et Cie.

Extractum opii, tinctura opii, pulvis ipecacuan- hae opiatus, liquor hy- drochlorati morphici, morphine and cocaine ampoules.8

Morphine.

Morphine.

Morphine.

Morphine.

Morphine.

Morphine.Cocaine.

1 " T here are 291 o th e r persons o r firms reg is te red u nder th e in te rn a l revenue law as m anufactu re rs , p roducers, or com pounders of ta x a b le n a rco tic drugs an d p rep ara tio n s. Some of these m anufactu re only one or tw o special m edicinal p repara tions. M any are p rim arily re ta il druggists who m anufactu re for th e ir own trad e tin c tu re of opium , D o v e r’s powder, and o th e r s ta n d a rd na rco tic p rep ara tio n s easily com pounded. The rem ainder co n stitu tes th e m an u fac tu re rs of p h arm aceu tica l p rep ara tio n s of a ll kinds req u ired by pharm acists , physicians, surgeons, den tis ts a n d hosp itals. T he four m an u fac tu re rs of coca-leaf a n d opium p ro d u c ts (a t th e ir five factories) do n o t engage in th e m an u fac tu re of p h arm aceu tica l p rep ara tio n s. Likewise, w ith one exception , th e 291 m an u fac tu re rs of p harm aceu tica l p ro d u c ts do n o t a t te m p t th e e x trac tio n of op ium alkaloids an d deriva tives of cocaine; one of th e p h arm aceu tica l m an u fac tu re rs produces a special p re p a ra tio n of op ium alkalo ids in a lim ited q u a n tity . This a rran g em en t has n o t been re q u ire d b y law a n d is en tire ly a com m ercial d ev elopm en t." (D ocum ent O.C.23(0)13.)

2 This firm is th e one excep tion referred to in th e passage q u o ted above (note fro m th e S ec re ta ry of S ta te , d a te dA ugust 17th, 1929).

a " These products are manufactured from imported and already prepared opium and also from morphine andcocaine. They are intended solely for pharmaceutical purposes and the quantity made is quite small, as the variouspharmacies themselves manufacture the same products from the above-mentioned substances.

— 28 — •

Country

Great Britain.Report for 1927, O.C.23 ( o t ) . i i .

Hungary.O.C.788.O.C.788(a).O.C.885.Letter of January

16th, 1930,from the Royal Hungarian Delegation.1

Place

Edinburgh, 93 and 109, Abbeyhill.

Edinburgh,Blandfield Chemical Works, Wheatfield Road.

London,Bell Lane, Wandsworth.

London, E.C.2.,7, Cowper Street, Finsbury.

Liverpool,29, Fleet Street.

London, E. 1.Devon Wharf &Bell Wharf,Emmott Street, Mile End.

Birmingham,19, 20 and 21 Lower Priory.

Liverpool,40, Hanover Street.

London, S.W.i,9, Colworth Grove York Street, Walworth.

Büdszentmihâly.

Factory

J. F. Macfarlan & Co.

T. & H. Smith, Ltd.

Drugs authorised

Morphine, heroin.

Morphine, heroin, medicinal opium.

Messrs. May & Baker, Ltd. Cocaine.

Stafford Allen & Sons, Ltd.

Evans Sons, Lescher & Webb, Ltd.

C. R. Harker, Stagg & Morgan, Ltd.

Medicinal opium.

Medicinal opium.

Medicinal opium.

Southall Bros. & Barclay. Medicinal opium.

R. Sumner & Co., Ltd.

John Wylde.

Alcaloida S. A.Dr. Jean Kabay.

“ Chinoin " S. A.

India.Report for 1927,

O.C.23(g)l2.Letter dated Au

gust 1st, 1929.

Italy.Letter from the

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rome, dated J a nuary 31st, 19294

Ghazipur.

Milan.Via Marsala, 5.

Florence,Via Mossotti, 4-6.

Government Opium Factory.

S. A. Carlo Erba.

L. & C. Molteni.

Medicinal opium.

Medicinal opium.

Opium alkaloids.Drugs having an opium

base: “ Domopon ”, including all the opium alkaloids (powder, tablets, phials), similar to pantopon.

Morphine, codein, salts of morphine and codeine, crude morphine.

Morphine,2 heroin 2.

Heroin.3

1 “ T he fa c to ry en tit le d ‘ Alcaloida ' S. A. a t B ü d szen tm ih âly is au th o rised b y th e G overnm en t to m anufacture an d sell th e opium alkaloids, e x tra c te d from th e green poppy, en u m e ra te d in th e G eneva O pium C onvention of 1925. This facto ry , how ever, th o u g h i t has been in o p era tio n fo r some years , has so fa r p roduced a n d sold only a trifling q u a n tity of th e drugs m entioned in th e C onvention.

“ An inspection of th e books of th e firm shows th a t th e fa c to ry has so fa r p roduced only some 650 gram m es of m orph ium hydroch loricum an d ab o u t 160 gram m es of d iace ty lm orph ine . P a r t of these drugs has been sen t to the labora tories of scientific in s titu tio n s to have th e ir com position te s te d a n d analysed, and p a r t has been sold to H ungarian pharm acies.

“ F u rth e r, a t th e end of 1929, th e ' A lcaloida ’ S. A. fa c to ry se n t to G erm any, u n d e r p ro p er au tho risa tion , about 500 (five hundred) gram m es of a substance con ta in ing in an im pure a n d still-m ixed s ta te a ll th e alkaloids of opium , i.e., of th e green poppy.

“ This sam ple is being used fo r ex p erim en ta l purposes b y th e facto ries p roducing p u re alkaloids of opium .“ If th e substance in question is found to be useful fo r th e m an u fac tu re of drugs, th e ' A lcaloida ’ facto ry

will p ro b ab ly cease in fu tu re to p roduce and m ark e t p rep ared a lkalo ids of op ium specified as narco tics b y th e Opium Convention.

" . . . A p a rt from th e above-m entioned tw o factories an d th e pharm acies, th e re are also in H u n g a ry th ir ty reg is te red factories and com m ercial firms au th o rised b y th e public a u th o ritie s to stock , p repare , sell o r m ark e t narcotics. These firms do n o t m an u fac tu re th e narco tics fro m th e raw m ate ria l b y a chem ical process, b u t p rep are th e m (extracts, tin c tu res , injections, D over's powder), using read y -p rep ared n a rco tics ob ta in ed fro m abroad , in accordance w ith pharm aceu tical p ractice ."

2 “ M anufactures p u re m orphine an d m orphine sa lts (hydroch lo ra te a n d su lphate) e x tra c te d from opium which i t im p o rts from Asia M inor.” C onverts m orphine hy d ro ch lo ra te in to hero in h y d ro ch lo ra te a n d in to codeine.

3 " M anufactures p u re hero in an d hydroch lo ra te fro m im p o rted m o rp h in e .”4 " W ith reg ard to th e num b er of firms w hich hav e been issued w ith licences ' T ype A ’ au tho ris ing th e m anufacture ,

— 2 9 —

Country Place Factory Drugs authorised

Italy (continued).

Letter from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, dated January 1st, 1930. (For text see document O.C.23(h)1 7 ( a ) . )

Japan.

Reports for 1927, Tokio. O.C.23(y)i2 and for 1928 O.C.23 (j)i 7. Osaka

Tokio.

Osaka.

Keije (Chosen). Tokio.

Letter dated Nov. Formosa.25th, 1929.1

Kwantung(Dairen)

The Netherlands.

Reports for 1926 Apeldoorn. and 1927.(O.C.23(n)8 andO.C. 23(3)13). Amsterdam.

Sankyo Co.Hoshi Drug Manufactur

ing Co.Dai Niion Drug Manufac

turing Co.Hygienic Laboratory of

the Home Office.Koto Drug Manufactur

ing Co.Takeda Drug Manufactur

ing Co.Shionogi Shoten Drug

Factory.Government Laboratory.Radium Drug Manufac

turing Co.Taiwan Seiyaku Kabushi-

ki Kaisha, Shinei Tai- nanshu.

Monopoly Bureau of the Government General of Taiwan, Taihoku.

Monopoly Bureau of the Government of Kwantung Leased Territory.

Dairen Drug Manufacturing Co.

Nederlandsche Fabriek van Pharmaceutisch Chemische Producten.3

Nederlandsche Cocaine- Fabriek.4

Morphine, cocaine. Morphine, heroin, cocaine.

Morphine, heroin, Allopon.

Medicinal opium.

Cocaine.

Cocaine.

Cocaine.

Medicinal opium.Narcopon.

Crude cocaine.

Crude morphine.2

Medicinal opium.

Papaolun (same composition as Narcopon).

Opium alkaloids.

Cocaine.

Norway.

Letter September Oslo. 30th, 1929.

Nyegaard & Co. Thébaicine (Pantopon).

d istribu tion and sale of th e narco tics m entioned in A rticle 12 of th e Law , No. 396 of F eb ru a ry 18th, 1923, and in Table A of R egu la tion No. 2534 of N ovem ber gth, 1923, I would re fer to th e re p o r t on th e traffic in opium an d o th er dangerous drugs in 1927 se n t to th e S e c re ta ria t w ith m y le t te r No. 202,773/35 of the 16th in s tan t. As was s ta te d in th e rep o rt, special regulations hav e been p rep ared m odifying those a t p re sen t in force w ith a view to an even m ore s tr in g en t co n tro l of the legitim ate trad e in narco tics . As soon as these regu la tions hav e come in to force, th e re will be a new revision of all licences issued au tho ris ing th e p roduction , d is tr ib u tio n a n d sale o f na rco tic substances."

1 In its le t te r of N ovem ber 25th, 1929, th e Japanese G overnm en t com m unica ted a lis t of factories in Form osa an d K w angtung, a n d s ta te d t h a t th e lis t of factories in Ja p a n p ro p e r an d K orea w ould be sen t la te r, as soon as i t was ready . D elay has been caused th ro u g h c e rta in changes necessita ted by th e fo rthcom ing revision of the R eg u la tio n s. T he lis t given in th e p re sen t do cu m en t fo r Ja p a n p roper a n d K orea is ta k e n from th e A nnual R ep o rts fo r 1927 and 1928.

2 Crude m orphine is ob ta in ed in Form osa as a b y -p ro d u c t b y th e M onopoly B ureau of th e G overnm en t of Form osa from th e m an u fac tu re of p rep ared op ium (docum ents C.328.M.88.1928.X I, O.C.816, page 22, a n d 0.0 2 3(^)12).

3 L icensed to m an u fac tu re d ifferen t kinds of narcotics, including m orphine, hero in an d cocaine, b u t th e au th o risa tio n is only being used fo r th e m an u fac tu re of op ium alkaloids.

4 Licensed to m an u fac tu re different kinds of narcotics, including m orphine, heroin a n d cocaine, b u t th e au th o risa tio n is only being used fo r th e m an u fac tu re of cocaine.

— 3° —


Peru.

O.C.153.1923.1 Cocaine.

Poland.

Verbal Note, dated December 12th, 1929.3

Letter dated Au- Warsaw, Marszal- gust 12th, 1929.2 kowska 23.

Warsaw, Karolkowa 22/24.

Warsaw, Przemyska2.

Warsaw, Wolnosé 7-9

Warsaw, Tlomackie11.

Warsaw, Tarchomin. Warsaw, Bielanska 3.

Poznanska

Burakowska

Belgijska 7. Leszno 15. Prosta 54. Belwederska

Warsaw,11.

Warsaw, i 5 -

Warsaw,Warsaw,Warsaw,Warsaw,

1.Warsaw, Boduena 1.Pabjanice, Pilsuds-

kiego, 5.Krakow, Dluga 46-48.Poznan, Gen. Chla-

powskiego 23-24.Poznan, Skladowa

13-18.Poznan, Soîacz 1.Lwôw, Ochronek 6.Lwôw, Kapielna 6-8.Grudziadz, J. Wybic-

kiego 31.Varsovie, Grzybows-

ka 43.

T-wo Akc. “ Motor ” .3

T-wo Przemysl.-Chem. d. Mag. Klawe.

J. Gessner.

T-wo Akc. “ Fr. Karpins- ki

K. Wenda.

Sp. Akc. L. Spiess i Syn.Fabr. Chem. Farm.

" GeoJ. Borowski.

" Ege

A. Gasecki i Syn.J . Salzman i S-ka.Kasa Chorych.Sielecke Zaklady Chem.

Seweryna Gôrska.Pabjanickie T-wo Prze

mysl.-Chem.“ Pharma. ”" Hafeza. ”

R. Barcikowski.

" Aka. "" Galen. ”“ Laokoon. ”“ Alchemja. ”

Ap. Kowalski.

All narcotic drugs.

1 " All cocaine ex p o rted is m an u fac tu red in th e coun try . T he fo rm in w hich i t is e x tra c te d is t h a t of commercial o r raw cocaine, w hich is n o t re ad y for im m ed ia te use. Cocaine sa lts a re n o t m an u fac tu red in th e c o u n try ." (Document O.C.153.)

2 “ A lthough these factories have th e r ig h t to p roduce a ll narcotics, none of th e m produces opium , m orphine, heroin o r cocaine. T h ey m erely im p o rt m edicinal opium , hydroch loride o f m orphine, d iace ty lm orphine an d hydrochloride of cocaine fo r the m an u fac tu re of com pounds such as t in c tu ra opii, pulv is D overi, G u ttae Inozem cow y, etc.

" The only ra w m ate ria l covered b y th e O pium C onvention im p o rted b y th e above-m entioned factories is Herba Cannabis Indicae, used fo r the m anufactu re of E x tra c tu m C annabis Ind icae and T in c tu ra C annabis In d icae .”

3 " T he fac to ry en titled ' M otor ’ S.A. of W arsaw is ex p erim en ting in the m an u fac tu re of sy n th e tic morphine b y th e J. M cLang process, b u t these a re no m ore th a n lab o ra to ry experim ents. T he w ork being carried o u t in regard to sy n th e tic m orphine is connected p a r tly w ith th e actio n of t h a t p ro d u c t a n d p a r tly w ith th e estim a te of its cost price, a n d has n o t y e t produced sa tis fac to ry results , so there is no im m ed ia te p ro sp ec t of th e in tro d u c tio n of sy n th e tic morphine in th e com m ercial m arke t.

" The Polish delegation v en tu res to p o in t o u t in th is connection t h a t th e provisions of th e G eneva Convention of F e b ru a ry rgth, 1 9 2 5 , do n o t ap p ly to sy n th e tic m orphine, as th e y on ly cover m orphine defined as th e p rincipal a l k a l o i d

of opium, th e chem ical fo rm ula of w hich is C17H 19 No. 3. T h e provisions o f A rticle 10 of th e C onvention w ould apply to sy n th e tic m orphine only if th a t p ro d u c t rep laced m orphine derived from opium an d if, supposing i t c o u ld

be m an u fac tu red on a large scale, i t could cause narcom an ia .’'

— 3 i —


Sweden.

Letter of Septem- Malmô. ber 20th, 1929. M

Stockholm.

Sôdertâlje.

Stockholm

Hâlsingborg.

Eckerman R., dentist.Liljedahl, J. F. C., Phar

macist, Pharmacie Le- jonet.

Blomqvist L.J.I., Pharmacist, Soc. Anonyme Pharmacie.

Danielsson G. W., Pharmacist, Usines chimiques des Pharmaciens.

Grônfeldt G. F., Pharmacist, Soc. Anonyme Pharmacia.

Bjurling O., Pharmacist.Soc. Anonyme Albromin.Kolmodin, J., Pharma

cist, Soc. Anonyme Léo.

All medicinal preparations covered by Chapter III of the Convention.1

Switzerland.2

Letter of F ebruary Altstetten. 2 I S t , I9 3 O .

Basle.

Berne.

Berthoud.

Nyon.

Vallorbe.

Vernier.

Zofingue.

Dr. Hefti, Fabrique de produits chimiques.

Fabrique de produits chimiques ci-devant San- doz.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Cie. S. A.

Soc. de chimie industrielle (Ciba).

Dr. A. Wander S. A.

Ludy & Co., Produits pharmaceutiques.

Th. Mühlethaler S.A.

E. Addor, Laboratoires pharmaceutiques.

Dr. Ranch, Fabrique d ’alcaloïdes et de produits chimiques.

Société anonyme ci-devantB. Siegfried.

Morphine, heroin, cocaine. Does not manufacture cocaine.

Morphine, heroin.


Manufactures pavon only. Pharmaceutical prepara

tions containing narcotics.

Morphine, heroin. Manufactures necopon only.

Pharmaceutical preparations, containing narcotics.

Morphine, heroin, cocaine. Does not manufacture cocaine.

Pharmaceutical preparations, including narcotics.

Czechoslovakia.

Letter of Novem- Chrast near Chrudim. Dr. Ing. Robert Heisler’s “ Novopon pulv.” extract ber 9th, 1929. Factory. of raw opium.

1 " E x ce p t a t th e above-m en tioned estab lishm en ts the substances in q uestion are n o t m an u fac tu red in Sweden. According to th e a n n u a l rep o rts su b m itted b y th e Swedish G ov ern m en t on th e op ium traffic, a ll th e ra w op ium im p o rted is regularly tran sfo rm ed in to m edicinal op iu m .”

2 " T he firm s of Sandoz, H o ffm ann-L a Roche, Mühlethaler, Hefti, Erzinger a n d th e Société de chimie industrielle are the on ly ones which m ay be reg ard ed as m anufactu re rs of narco tics in th e s t r ic t sense of th e te rm . T he o th e r firms shown in th e list m anufactu re , n o t drugs, b u t p harm aceu tica l p re p ara tio n s co n ta in ing drugs.

“ In p o in t of fact, th e o n ly firms w hich m anufactu re m orphine and hero in a re H offm ann-La Roche S . A . a n d the Fabrique de produits chimiques formerly Sandoz, of Basle. Messrs. H o ffm ann-L a Roc-he also m an u fac tu re cocaine and pantopon. The firm of T h. M ühlethaler S. A. of N yon m anufactu res m ecopon an d th e Société de Chimie industrie lle (Ciba) of Basle m anufactu res p av o n ; b o th these p ro d u c ts a re sim ilar to p a n to p o n .”

— 3 2 —

Country

Uruguay.

Letter of November 28th, 1929.1

Place

Montevideo.

Factory

Bocage Bujalance & Capra Galien Laboratory.

Lage and Dotta Dispert Laboratory.

Senor J. Mayor Souza, Behai Pharmacy.

Drugs authorised

Tincture and mild liquid extract of opium, Dover’s powder, Opiopon (similar to Pantopon).

Mecopon (similar to Pantopon).

Neopaleol (similar to Pantopon).

Notes.

1. The following comment made in the annual report of the United States of America for 1927 may be noted:

“ I t may also be stated tha t, as a result of an informal survey, there appear to be no factories, with the exception of those in the United States, in any country in the Western Hemisphere engaged in the extraction of the alkaloids from crude opium, and there appear to be factories in but two countries of South America engaged in the manufacture of cocaine or its products from coca leaves.” See also Minutes of the Opium Advisory Committee, Eleventh Session, pages 40 and 42; ibid., Twelfth Session, page 139.

2. For references to the existence in Constantinople of a factory the “ Oriental Products Company” , engaged in the manufacture of morphine and heroin, see documents O.C.572 and O.C.928.

3. For a reference to the manufacture in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of [a) morphine, see Minutes of the Opium Advisory Committee, Eleventh Session, page 51; (b) Cocaine; ibid., Twelfth Session, page 29.

4. The Governments of Haiti, Guatemala and Salvador state that they will send their replies later.

Appendix 7 .

REVISED FORM OF ANNUAL REPORT BY GOVERNMENTS.

As approved by the Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs on February 14th, 1930, and by the Council.

To be forwarded to the Secretariat each year not later than July 1st, except in the case of Far-Eastern States, which should forward the report not later than October 1st.

Report by the Government o f.............. for the Calendar Year. ...........on the Traffic in Opiumand Other Dangerous Drugs.

(1) A. G e n e r a l .

Please mention any new legislation and important regulations and orders affecting the traffic in and production of opium, the coca leaf, Indian hemp and any dangerous drugs derivedfrom them that have been issued during the year............. and any important changes in theadministrative arrangements.

1 " No fa c to ry fo r the purpose of p rep arin g cocaine a n d m orphine o r de riv a tiv es o f these substances ex is ts in our co u n try . Chemists au tho rised to im p o rt a n d deal in coca, op ium and th e ir de riv a tiv es generally confine them selves to th e sale of these substances to pharm acies, and on ly co n v ert sm all q u an titie s of op ium in to D o v e r’s pow ders, laudanum and t in c tu re of opium . T here is only th e Galien L ab o ra to ry , w hich is th e p ro p e rty of the chem ical firm of Bocage, B ujalance & Capra, w hich p rep ares a mild liquid e x tra c t of opium , D over’s pow ders, t in c tu re of opium , laudanum and a m edicinal p rep ara tio n for in jections— h av ing as i ts base a ll the alkalo ids of op ium — know n as Opiopon, which is p u t up in tu b es u n d e r th e nam e of Sedargil-Galien and is sim ilar to P an to p o n . Besides th is lab o ra to ry , th e re are two o thers each of which p repares a d rug sim ilar to P an topon , fo r in jection , sold u n d e r th e nam es of Mecopon an d Neopaleol respectively. These labora to ries are : D ispert, the p ro p e rty of the p h arm aceu tica l firm of L age & D o tta , a n d th e laboratory of B ehai Pharm acy , th e p ro p e rty of th e chem ist Senor J. M ayor Souza. B o th of th ese a re s i tu a te d in th is cap ita l."

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Please state particulars of any publication issued likely to be of interest to the Opium Advisory Committee.

(2) Control of International Trade.

Please state whether the “ Import Certificate ” system for the control of import and export is working satisfactorily and, if not, what are the difficulties which have arisen. What is the practice with regard to countries which have not yet adopted the system ?

Please indicate any difficulties which may have arisen with regard to transit, transhipment and diversion or with regard to free ports, free zones and bonded warehouses.

(3) Internal Regulation of the Manufacture, Sale Distribution, Use, etc., of the Drugs.

Please give particulars regarding any new points of interest or importance relating to the administration of the laws in force, in particular with regard to the operation of the licencing system and the control of manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacists, also as to the prevalence of the drug habit ; difficulties in the application of the laws to particular cases ; difficulties in the enforcement of the laws, and particulars available of the illicit traffic carried on and the channels by, and the sources from which this traffic is fed.

(4) International Co-operation.

Please mention any new points of interest or importance as regards co-operation with other Governments to prevent the use of narcotic drugs for other than medical and scientific purposes or to prevent or suppress the illicit traffic in such substances, and any difficulties which may have arisen in this connection.

Please give reference to any treaties or international arrangements made during the year.

B. P a r t i c u l a r D r u g s .

(5) Raw Opium and Coca Leaves.

If the country is a producing country, please state acreage under cultivation (a) of opium poppy, (b) of coca plants.

(6) Prepared Opium. (Chapter II of the Hague Opium Convention 1912 and the Geneva Opium Agreement of February n th , 1925.)

{a) Countries where import, manufacture and use of prepared opium is prohibited.

Please state whether it has been found possible to suppress opium-smoking :

(1) Among national population(2) Among alien population.

If not, what nationalities are addicted, what is the nature of the difficulties which have been experienced in suppressing the practice; and to what extent is opium illicitly introduced ?

What action has been taken to enforce the law ?Please state number of prosecutions, convictions and penalties imposed.Please state the quantities of prepared opium confiscated indicating where possible the origin.Give particulars of the disposal of the amounts confiscated.

(b) Countries where use of prepared opium is not entirely prohibited.

Please state whether any change has been made in the system during the year, and what further steps, if any, have been taken towards suppression.

Please state, if possible, total amount of prepared opium consumed, price at which retailed, and particulars, if not already given, of the working of the system of control.

Please furnish all information which can be obtained regarding the number of opium smokers.Where smokers are required to be licensed or registered, please state number of licensed or

registered smokers.State number of Chinese resident in the country and, if smoking is prevalent among persons

of any other nationality, the number of residents of that nationality as well. State also revenue, if any, derived from the sale of prepared opium and what proportion it bears to the total revenue of the country.

Please state the number of prosecutions, convictions and penalties imposed.Please state the quantities of prepared opium confiscated indicating where possible the origin.Give particulars of the disposal of the amounts confiscated.

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(y) Indian Hemp.

Is Indian hemp (a) indigeneous, (b) cultivated. (If cultivated, state area under cultivation.)Is the (a) production, (b) use of Indian hemp permitted in any of its forms (Charas, hashish,

ganja, bhang, etc.) and if so, in what forms. Please state the system of control in force (legislative and administrative) over the traffic in this drug.

Is smuggling prevalent ? If so, give particulars as to the origin of the Indian hemp and the routes by which it is smuggled.

(8) Other drugs to which the Hague and Geneva Conventions apply (medicinal opium, morphine,heroin, cocaine, etc.).

Please state the names and addresses of factories producing the drugs, indicating in each case the drug or drugs which the factory is authorised to manufacture and the output of each of the drugs during the year from each factory.

Please state classes of persons to whom permits or authorisations for the use or possession of the drugs have been granted, indicating separately the number of licensed wholesalers.

(9) Illicit Traffic.

Please give information regarding numbers of prosecutions and convictions, and regarding the penalties imposed.

Please give statistics of quantities of narcotic substances (except prepared opium—see paragraph 6 above) confiscated, indicating amounts seized and method of disposal. Countries are asked to distinguish as far as practicable between amounts confiscated on account of illicit import or export and quantities confiscated in other circumstances.

N.B. — Countries are requested to notify and to give details of all important cases of illicit traffic and seizures as soon as possible to the Secretariat of the League of Nations.

C. M i s c e l l a n e o u s .

(10) China.

Please supply any information not hitherto submitted as to execution of Treaty provisions (see Chapter IV of the Hague Convention).

(11) Other Drugs.

Please state any facts of importance with regard to the use of drugs not mentioned in theforegoing questions and any action taken during the y e a r in connection therewith.

In particular, please give any information available as regards the amount of codeine manufactured, imported, exported and consumed.

(12) Additional Information and Suggestions.

N.B. -■— Countries are asked to supply corresponding information in respect of their Colonies, Possessions, Protectorates, Leased Territories, Mandated Territories, etc.

Appendix 8.O.C.1169.

REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO CONSIDER ITEMS 10, 11 AND 14OF THE AGENDA

(Relations with Central Board, form of annual reports and import certificate system.)

The Sub-Committee held two meetings and presents the following report to the Committee. In its discussions on Items 10 and 11 of the Agenda (relations with the Permanent Central

Board and revisions of the Form of Annual Reports), the Sub-Committee bore in mind the decision of the Advisory Committee embodied in the following passage of the Committee’s report to the Council on the work of its twelfth session :

“ After an exhaustive discussion, the Committee noted that its rights and duties would be in no way restricted by the creation of the Central Board. Nevertheless, by the fact of the new body’s having entered upon its duties, the Committee will be relieved of a large part of its technical work, more particularly the detailed examination of the different statistics.

■— 3 5

“ The Committee will continue to examine those statistics, though their preparation and full technical analysis can be left to the Central Board, but the Committee’s examination will be restricted to what it may consider necessary for the purposes of its work. It will thus be possible in future to avoid any overlapping between the work of the two bodies.”

Item io. Relations with the Permanent Central Board:

(a) Request of the Board that the Advisory Committee should furnish it with such information as it may have regarding quantities of substances seized for other reasons than on account of illicit import and export and the manner in which the confiscated substances have been disposed of (Letter dated November 1st, 1929, from the President of the Board to the Chairman of the Advisory Committee (document O.C.1093)).

The Sub-Committee proposes that the request of the Board should be complied with so far as it lies within the power of the Advisory Committee to supply the information required. Provision has been made under paragraph 9 of the revised Form of Annual Reports with a view to securing as completely as possible for the year 1929 and onwards the information desired by the Board.

Item 10 (6). Request of the Board that the Advisory Committee should furnish it with such statistics as the Committee may receive from countries which have not furnished the said statistics to the Board (ibid.).

I t is proposed that the Advisory Committee should comply with the request of the Board and should instruct the Secretariat to make such statistics available to the Board at the same time as they are circulated to the members of the Committee.

Item 11. Revision of the Form of Annual Reports (document O.C.23(3)). (See discussion:Minutes of the Twelfth Session of the Advisory Committee, pages 18 ff.)

In dealing with this matter, the Sub-Committee was guided by two main considerations :

(1) The desirability of maintaining uniformity as far as possible as regards the basis and mode of presentation of the opium statistics published by the League and the importance of as close co-operation as possible in this matter with the Central Board.

(2) The necessity for avoiding asking Governments to send in twice practically the same set of statistics to two different organs of the League.

The Sub-Committee therefore proposes that the Form of Annual Reports should be issued in two forms :

(a) Without statistical tables and(b) With statistical tables annexed.

Form A would ask only for information which is mainly non-statistical in character (except as regards seizures and prepared opium) and would be sent only to countries which already furnish statistics to the Central Board. Countries which do not furnish statistics to the Board would receive Form B, which would be in two parts, the first part identical with Form A and the second part consisting of statistical tables following in their main lines the statistical forms prepared by the Board, but in a simplified form. Governments receiving Form B would be asked to fill in the statistical tables and the statistical information obtained would be made available to the Board.

The Sub-Committee submits for the consideration of the Committee a revised Form of Annual Reports without the statistical tables. The Sub-Committee proposes that the preparation of the tables should be entrusted to the Secretariat, in consultation with the Chairman of the Advisory Committee. No provision should be made in the tables for the furnishing of estimates. Annual and not quarterly statistics of imports and exports should be required. The forms should be prepared in time for submission to the Council at its next session.

It is further proposed that a copy of the Form of Annual Reports should in future be sent to the Governments each year with the annual reminder letter regarding the despatch of annual reports.

As regards the Summary of Annual Reports, prepared each year by the Secretariat, it is proposed that this document should no longer contain statistical tables, except as regards prepared opium and possibly seizures (amount seized and method of disposal), but that the Secretariat should extract from the statistical tables issued by the Central Board, and use in summarising each report such statistical information as might seem of special importance. The Sub-Committee assumes that such statistical information and tables as may be issued by the Board will be available

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for the use of the Advisory Committee, and in time to be used by the Secretariat in connection with the preparation of the Summary of Annual Reports.

The Sub-Committee proposes that the Board should be requested to make available to the Advisory Committee in time for inclusion in the Summary of Annual Reports any remarks or comments of general interest and importance which the Governments may make on the figures which they furnish to the Board.

Item 14. Import Certificate System:(a) Administrative measures in connection with the working of the system, proposals by the

Japanese Government (see letter from M. Sato, dated October 26th, 1929—document0.C.1077).

The Sub-Committee considered the proposals made by the Japanese Government and came to the following conclusion as regards the four points raised :

1. I t would be a great convenience to Governments if import certificates issued in a language not widely understood could be accompanied by a translation in one or other of the two official languages of the League. I t is suggested that this recommendation should be brought to the attention of Governments.

2. I t is desirable that an import certificate should always state the period within which the importation is to be effected. (Compare Article 12 of the Geneva Opium Convention.)

3. I t is permissible under the Geneva Convention to export in several consignments a quantity of narcotic drugs covered by a single import certificate, provided that each consignment so exported is covered by a separate export authorisation.

4. Article 15 of the Geneva Opium Convention provides that no consignment shall be permitted to pass through a third country unless the copy of the export authorisation which accompanies the consignment is produced to the competent authorities of that country. It is considered that this provision does not require that a separate copy of the export authorisation must be produced to the authorities in each country through which the consignment passes.

(b) The Committee is asked for its opinion on the following point:

When a country which is not a party to the Geneva Convention has expressed its willingness to furnish import certificates if desired, does an obligation rest upon the countries which are parties to the Convention under Article 18 to require the production of such a certificate before sanctioning exports to that country ? (Item proposed by the representative of Great Britain.)

The Sub-Committee proposes that this item should be dealt with by the Advisory Committee in plenary session.

Information regarding the Import Certificate System, etc.

The Sub-Committee is of the opinion that the Secretariat should be asked, in accordance with the suggestion made by the Secretary in the Progress Report and by the members of the Committee, to include in a single document for the convenience of the Governments concerned : (1) a list of the countries which have adopted the import certificate system (giving as far as practicable date of acceptance of the system, or of ratification of the Geneva Convention, and date or dates of enforcing legislation or regulations) ; (2) the names and addresses of the Government departments authorised to issue or receive import certificates or to issue or receive export authorisations ;(3) lists of the towns, ports, or other localities through which the export or import of raw opium, coca leaves, or narcotic drugs is permitted ; and (4) a list of the Government departments authorised to exchange information with regard to illicit traffic and seizures.

Appendix 9 . O.C.417 (m).

SHIPMENTS OF PERSIAN OPIUM KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN SHIPPED FROM THE PORTS OF BUSHIRE AND MOHAMMERAH DURING THE PERIOD DECEMBER i s t , 1 9 2 8 ,

TO NOVEMBER 3 0 T H , 1 9 2 9 .

Memorandum by the British Representative in continuation of previous memorandum (O.C.417 (g)) appearing as Appendix 6 to the Report of the Twelfth Session of the Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs.

P o r t Vessel D ateN um ber of

ChestsDeclared

D estinationFlag

Bushire Varela 2.X II.28 30 Dairen BritishVasna 9.XII.28 200* SingaporeVarela 24.X II.28 50 ”Vasna 30.XII.28 100* ”

” 20.1.29 100 Keelung ”100* Singapore107*

Varsova 27.1.29 50* ”50*

Varela 3.11.29 50 Keelung43* Singapore52*

143 DairenVarsova 17.11.29 100* Singapore

40 Sandakan66* Singapore

Varela 23.11.29 10 Sandakan100 Batavia

Vasna 3.III .29 32* Singapore200 Keelung ”

Barjora I I . III .29 196 Macao54

Bandra 19.III .29 200 Dairen” 150* Singapore

Varela 28.IV.29 150* ” ”** 124* ”

Vasna 5.V.29 26*Lau Hop 27.VII.29 1445** Vladivostok Chinese

” 26” ” 437

Mohammerah Varela 3.VIII.29 114* Singapore BritishV ita IO.VIII.29 16*

Varsova I7.VIII.29 20* ”Bushire Varela 15.IX .29 150* ”

” 1 Dairen” 130

Varsova 30.IX.29 50 HamburgVasna I3.X.29 150 Macao

” 100 Dairen ”” 30

Varsova 20.X.29 40 New YorkV arela 27.X.29 100* Singapore ”Vasna 2.X I.29 3° New York ”

” ” 63* Singapore ”3.XI.29 30 Dairen

50Altensfels 5.X I.29 190 Hamburg German

» Times M am 5.X I.29 412 Vladivostok JapaneseVarsova 10.X I.29 80* Singapore BritishVarela 17.XI.29 50 Dairen ”Vasna 24.XI.29 200* Bangkok

" 136* Singapore

* C hests con ta ined 140 lbs.** C hests co n ta ined 100 lbs.

In all o th e r cases th e chests a re p resum ed to have con ta ined 100 lbs

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The total amount of Persian opium mentioned in this table as having been exported from Bushire and Mohammerah is 6,573 chests, or approximately 411 tons.

Total amount of Persian opium declared for:

Vladivostok......................................... 2,320 chests or approximately 127 tonsB a t a v i a ......................................... 100 ,, ,, 7S in g a p o re ......................................... 2,079 ,, „ 130 >2 ,,D airen ............................................ 76 4 ,, ,, 54/4 »K ee lu n g ........................................ 350 „ 25M acao............................................. 400 ,, ,, 28% ,,S a n d a k a n ..................................... 50 ,, 5%New Y o r k ..................................... 7° ,, 3Hamburg........................................ 240 ,, 17V2 „B angkok ........................................ 200 ,, 12 x/2 »

The opium carried on British vessels was covered by import certificates issued by the Government of the country to which the opium was consigned.

Note in regard to shipment of 516 chests for Vladivostok on November 2nd, 1928 on s.s. Kohatsu Maru (see list of shipments from Persian Gulf appended to Report of Twelfth Session).

This vessel left Bushire on November 3rd, 1928, with three Chinese passengers (reported to be opium buyers for the agents of the charterers, also Chinese) and arrived at Tsingtao on December 14th in ballast, with no opium on board. The master denied that he had had any opium on board, and produced a clearance for Tsingtao purporting to be issued by the Bushire authorities, dated November 3rd, as a proof that he had shipped no opium. It has been ascertained, however, that the consignment of opium appeared in the ship’s original manifest.

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