891.114 Narcotics/22
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Howard)
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note No. 624 of July 10, 1924, with regard to the illicit trade in opium from ports in the Persian Gulf to China and other far eastern countries. In this communication you indicate that the British Government has decided to issue regulations to its consular officers in the Persian Gulf setting forth the procedure to be observed in granting clearance to British vessels carrying cargoes of opium. You further state that before the regulations in question are issued the British Government proposes to invite the Persian Government to cooperate in the control of the opium traffic in the Persian Gulf, in view of the very considerable financial and economic interests of the latter government. You also inquire, under instructions from your Government, whether the Government of the United States, in view of the interest it has taken in the regulation of the traffic in opium, would be inclined to instruct the American Minister at Teheran to support the representations which His Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires has been instructed to make.
In reply I have the honor to state that subject to the reservation in the concluding paragraph of this note, the Department is instructing the American Minister at Teheran to inform the appropriate Persian authorities that the Government of the United States trusts that the Persian Government will take the necessary steps to obtain a more effective control of the traffic in opium with a view to the elimination of the illicit traffic in that drug.
The American Minister is being instructed also to inform the Persian authorities that this Government has taken stringent measures to regulate the traffic in opium so far as the United States and its possessions are concerned, and that any action which may be taken by the Persian Government to suppress the illegal opium traffic in south Persia would be helpful to the United States in making more effective its own regulations.
With regard to your suggestion that the Department intimate to the Administrator General of the Finances of Persia the desirability of inducing the Persian Government to cooperate in this matter, I would add that while the Department is following with interest the work of the Financial Adviser it refrains from making suggestions to him otherwise than through the regular channels of the competent Persian authorities. The third, fourth and fifth quarterly reports of the Administrator General indicate, however, that plans have already been made which, if carried out, will result in a closer supervision of the domestic consumption as well as of the [Page 585] international trade in opium. These reports also show that some progress has been made in the extension of the control of this trade.
In conclusion I desire, however, to add that pending a satisfactory settlement by the Persian Government of the questions arising from the killing in Teheran of Vice Consul Imbrie,76 this Government would not be disposed to make the representations outlined above, and the American Minister has been so advised.
Accept [etc.]