PART IX.-Repeal and Transitory Provisions. 63. On the commencement of this Order, the following Orders in Council shall be repealed, that is to say : "The Zanzibar Order in Council, 1906." "The Zanzibar Order in Council, 1906, No. 2."† "The Zanzibar (Amendment) Order in Council, 1908." Provided as follows: (1.) Where other provision is not made by decree of the Sultan, countersigned by the British Resident, any law practice or procedure established by or under the said repealed Orders and all the Indian Acts now in force in Zanzibar (save and except "The Bombay Civil Courts Act, 1869," which shall from and after the commencement of this Order cease to have any force in the Protectorate) shall remain in force as provided by Article 24 of this Order, until such other provision is made. (2.) Every appointment of a Judge or other officer, and every Court established and existing at the commencement of this Order, shall, until other provision is made, continue to be as if this Order had not been passed. (3.) All legal proceedings begun under the said repealed Orders and pending at the commencement of this Order shall be continued as if this Order had not been passed. (4.) All regulations and rules made under the said repealed Orders shall remain in force until otherwise provided by decree of the Sultan, countersigned by the British Resident. 64.-(1.) Until other provision is made by decree of the Sultan of Zanzibar, countersigned by the British Resident, and subject to the other provisions of this Order, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the other enactments relating to the administration of criminal justice in India applicable to Zanzibar, shall have effect as if Zanzibar were a district and an Assistant Judge the Magistrate of the district, and the Judge the Sessions Judge; the Court of Appeal shall be deemed to be the High Court; and the powers both of the Governor-General in Council and of the Local Government under those enactments, shall be exercisable by the Secretary of State, or, with his previous or subsequent assent, by the High Commissioner. (2.) Provided, however, that no sentence of death passed by the Court for Zanzibar shall require confirmation by the Court of Appeal. 65. Until other provision is made by decree of the Sultan of Zanzibar, countersigned by the British Resident, and subject to the other provisions of this Order, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Indian Succession Act, and the other enactments relating to the administration of civil justice in India applicable to Zanzibar * Vol. XCIX, page 459. + Vol. XCIX, page 513. Vol. CI, page 108. § Vol. CII, page 55. shall have effect as if Zanzibar were a district, and the Judge the District Judge, and the Assistant Judge the Joint District Judge of the district, and the Court for Zanzibar the District Court or Principal Civil Court of Original Jurisdiction in the district; the Court of Appeal shall be deemed to be the highest Civil Court of Appeal for the district, and the Court authorized to hear appeals from and to revise the decisions of the District Court; and the powers, both of the Governor-General in Council and the Local Government, under those enactments shall be exercisable by the Secretary of State, or, with his previous or subsequent assent, by the High Commissioner. 66.-(1.) This Order shall commence and have effect on such day as may be fixed by notification by the Secretary of State published in the "London Gazette.”* (2.) A notice shall be published at Zanzibar by the British Resident, specifying the date on which the Secretary of State has appointed that the said Order shall commence. (3.) From and after the issue of such notice the Judge of the Court of Zanzibar shall, on receipt of a copy of the said Order, affix the same in a conspicuous place in the public oflice of the said Court, and keep the same exhibited for such a period as the British Resident shall direct. (4.) Proof shall not in any proceeding or matter be required that the provisions of paragraphs (2) and (3) of this Article have been complied with, nor shall any act or proceeding be invalidated by any failure to comply with any of such provisions. And the Right Honourable Lewis Harcourt, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, is to give the necessary ALMERIC FITZROY. directions herein. CORRESPONDENCE respecting the Second International Opium Conference, held at The Hague, July 1913.† (No. 1.)-Sir Edward Grey to British Delegates to the Second International Opium Conference. GENTLEMEN, Foreign Office, June 30, 1913. You have already been informed that His Majesty's Government have selected you to be the British delegates at the International Conference which is to meet at The Hague *This Order was brought into operation on April 20, 1914, by Notificacation published in the "London Gazette," April 17, 1914. + From Parliamentary Paper, "Miscellaneous No. 2 (1914)." on the 1st July to consider the question of the ratification of the International Opium Convention of January, 1912.* You will doubtless remember with what difficulties you were confronted at the former Conference owing to the fact that, the Powers represented being limited in number to twelve, they were not alone competent to carry out the full extent of international co-operation contemplated by the Convention, and owing to the danger also that the participating Powers might eventually find that they had unavailingly sacrificed their trade interests for the sake of international morality, while outside Powers, on whom no such obligation might rest, had merely profited by this altruism to advance their own interests, at the same time nullifying to a great extent the objects aimed at by the Convention. The circumstances of the Conference were in this respect unprecedented, since some of the matters dealt with at its sittings were of world-wide interest and could not be adequately carried out by the small number of Powers represented, especially in view of the fact that some of the non-represented Powers occupied a very important position in regard to the questions under discussion, as, for instance, Turkey in regard to raw opium, and Peru and Bolivia in regard to cocaine. It was difficulties of this sort that necessitated the special and original character of the "effectuating" clauses, according to which the first step after the signing of the Convention was not to be ratification by the signatory Powers, but an invitation addressed to the thirty-four Powers of Europe and America not represented at the Conference, to sign the Convention, and thus put themselves on the same footing as the original participating Powers. Article 23 further provided that, in the event of the signatures of all the Powers invited not having been obtained by the 31st December, 1912, the Netherlands Government should immediately invite the Powers who had signed by that date to appoint delegates to examine at The Hague the possibility of depositing the ratifications notwithstanding. Accordingly in the month of January the Netherlands Chargé d'Affaires communicated to His Majesty's Government an invitation from his Government to a Conference to be held at The Hague in the month of June, to consider the possibility of proceeding to the ratification of the International Opium Convention. Accompanying the invitation was a list of countries which had signed the supplementary protocol provided for in Article 22 of the Convention, as well as of those countries which had at that date either failed or definitely refused to sign. An examination of this list shows that of the thirty-four Powers invited to sign the additional protocol, seventeen had actually signed, namely, the Argentine Republic, Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the Republic of Ecuador, Guatemala, the Republic of Hayti, *Vol. CV, page 490. Honduras, Luxemburg, Mexico, Panamá, Paraguay, Salvador, Spain, and the United States of Venezuela. The Powers whose signatures had not been obtained by the end of last year were the following: Austria-Hungary, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, the Republic of Cuba, Greece, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Roumania, Servia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Uruguay. Of these last seventeen, Bolivia, Colombia, and the Republic of Cuba actually signed, while Bulgaria, Nicaragua, and Uruguay have declared their intention of signing. The invitation of the Netherlands Government, together with the accompanying list, has received the careful consideration of the departments concerned, by whom the attention of His Majesty's Government has been directed to the following points: On the one hand it has been urged that the non-acceptance of the Convention by certain countries would have no practical effect upon the interests of India, nor would it affect our Eastern Colonies, except in so far as it would diminish the protection afforded to those countries from the illicit importation of drugs; while it is of the greatest importance to them that the importation of drugs should be regulated as far as possible, and from that point of view it is very desirable that the Convention should be ratified, even if its effect were impaired by non-acceptance on the part of some countries. On the other hand, some authorities felt that the nonadherence to the Convention of European countries of importance, and especially of Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, and Norway, would tend to render nugatory the entire system of proposals for checking the export of morphia and cocaine to the East, while as regards cocaine, the abstention of Peru would of itself counteract any efforts that the European Powers-even if themselves united-might make to put an end to the illicit trade in that drug. If the above-mentioned Powers held aloof, the Convention in its present form (it has been held) would fail to induce the beneficial effects intended, and the strongest effort should be made to induce the countries named to adhere to the Convention, even if this should necessitate the postponement of ratification by His Majesty's Government. The manufacture of morphia and cocaine might take place in non-adhering countries, and these might be exported without any restrictions imposed by the country of origin. Moreover, existing chemical manufacturers in adhering countries would probably be prepared to establish works in countries which had not adhered. Apart from the possibility of a transfer of manufacture to, or of a development of existing manufacture in, countries not bound by the Convention, such countries would under the Convention as negotiated, be open to the unrestricted importation of morphia and cocaine from countries which were parties to the Convention. It would thus be especially easy for manufacturers in adhering countries to use adjacent non-adhering countries as countries of transit through which their manufactures could be conveyed to the Eastern consumer, while manufacturers in the United Kingdom would also be in a position to utilise Trieste, Fiume, &c., for the same purpose, if, for instance, Austria-Hungary remained outside the Convention. As regards the effect of the non-adherence of Peru, it has been pointed out that the bulk of the raw material for the manufacture of cocaine is derived from that country, and it is understood that already, without the employment of any specially elaborate pharmaceutical methods, a large quantity of coca leaf has been submitted to a process of extraction in Peru, and that the extract contained seven-tenths of the amount of the active principle that is contained in the salt of cocaine ordinarily in use. It would be easy for any firm of druggists to establish a small factory in Peru which could supply the whole world with the entire quantity of cocaine salts which it was likely to be able to consume. It has been suggested that as the cocaine habit is regarded as having effects as bad as or worse than the morphia habit, the non-adherence of Peru, even if all the European States were to adhere, would leave the evils connected with the export of drugs to the East practically untouched. Any attempt to suppress the illicit trade in morphia and cocaine by united action in the countries of manufacture will thus be seriously impaired, and may even fail unless all countries which manufacture, or are likely to manufacture, these drugs, can be induced to agree to proposals on the lines of those laid down in the Opium Convention. Through the kindness of the Netherlands Government, His Majesty's Government have been in a position to consider the reasons which had prompted the refusals on the omission of certain Governments to sign the Convention. It appears that Greece has refused to sign without stating any reason, while the Turkish Government have based their refusal on the same economic reasons which prevented them from taking part in the Conference. The Swiss Federal Council in their reply, while expressing sympathy with the high moral purpose that inspired the Convention, stated that they did not consider that the co-operation of Switzerland would serve any useful purpose. They based their view on the facts that Switzerland neither produced nor exported opium, and that the improper use of opium was not prevalent in the country. They added that the use of opium and its alkaloids, and of cocaine, was already strictly regulated by the national and cantonal pharmacy laws, and that as to the chemical factories which manufactured morphine and cocaine, their control was in the hands of the cantonal authorities, and under present conditions the Federal authorities had no power to interfere with them. The Austro-Hungarian Government informed the Netherlands Government that the question of signing the Convention was [1914. CVII.] F |