Word: opiumeators
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...suppress progressively within ten years the opium-smoking habit by decreasing proportionately the importations of the drug. After the tenth year, importation and production, except for medicinal and scientific needs, are to be entirely prohibited...
Lord Cecil's comment (subsequently indorsed by France- and the Netherlands) on the U. S. plan was, in effect, "Impossible! The time's much too short." Briefly, the noble lord wanted 15 years in which to suppress opium smoking, but he did not want that period to begin "until a date on which the effective execution of measures taken 'by China to suppress the growth of the opium poppy has reached such a stage as to remove the danger of opium smuggling from China into those territories...
...further suggested that a commission appointed by the League should decide when the danger of opium smuggling in China is passed; for, in his lordships opinion, it was useless to deal in half measures-all production in the drug was to cease immediately. It would then be possible for a 15-year period of gradual suppression of opium production to begin...
...good; but his lordship allowed his irritation to rule his Salisbury head. He accused the U. S. of using more opium and narcotic drugs than the people of India, whose sacred rights he was also representing.- Such absurd charges all but broke up the conference. Mr. Porter took the earliest opportunity of rising to confront Lord Cecil with his black slander on the U. S. A situation had undoubtedly been created that called for diplomatic handling. Mr. Porter was anything but suave, he fell in Lord Cecil's error, replied angrily that the charge was a false and vile...
...Porter arose once more, made a concession; said that the U. S. would agree to a 15-year period for the elimination of the opium scourge, would permit individual Governments to carry out the terms of the proposal; but he would not agree to wait until China had suppressed her opium production to an extent that would remove the smuggling danger. Upon that rock, the conference bumped its battered bows...