THE OPIUM TRAFFIC

Southland Times, Issue 19457, 22 January 1925, Page 5

THE OPIUM TRAFFIC

AMERICAN PROPOSALS. PASSIVE RESISTANCE APPARENT. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) GENEVA, January 20. (Received January 22, 1 a.m.) Mr Stephen Porter, American representative, in the course of an outspoken speech at the Opium Conference, said: “I have been in Geneva two months, and still find myself pleading for a hearing on the most important item among my Government’s suggestions.” He proceeded to accuse the Hague signatories of wishing to postpone reforms because they found the drug trade lucrative. Mr Porter denounced as “a vile slander” the statement by Lord Robert Cecil that the consumption of opium in America was greater per head than in India. Lord Cecil now acknowledges that the statement was based on inaccurate data. Mr Porter expressed surprise that the inaccuracy should not have been known to Lord Cecil’s advisers, and continued: “America has come to the conclusion that the time has arrived to fix a definite time limit, after which the use of prepared opium shall be illegal throughout the world. She is willing, as a concession, to extend that limit from 10 to 15 years.”