13

A..—5

The Swiss- resolution was modified in such a manner as to instruct the Secretary of the Fifth Committee to forward the resolutions of the Congress unofficially to the members of the Advisory Commission for their information, together with the minutes of the meeting at which the draft resolution was discussed. The Congress resolutions will be found amongst the documents sent under cover of this report, and 1 advise that they be transmitted to the Department in Wellington competent to deal with them (see Document A. 72 and enclosure). Protection of Women and Children in the Near East. This work, which has been supported by the League of Nations for several years, is undertaken by Dr. Kennedy in Constantinople and by Miss K. Jeppe in Aleppo. It consists in providing a house in each of those cities for the reception of women and children who, during the Armenian deportations, were forcibly kept by people of nationalities other than their own. There is no compulsion on such women and children to seek refuge in either house ; but it is generally known that the houses are in existence, and that, being maintained with the help of money derived from the League, they are proper houses to which unfortunate women and children who are able to escape from the bondage which is their lot arc able to go to be cared for until information of the location of their own relatives can be obtained, or until they can be received in a village inhabited by their own folk where they can lead peaceful lives. In addition to the upkeep of these houses, which may be looked upon as the main work, Miss Jeppe has provided a village colony in Syria for the reception of such women and children, but the Power exercising the mandate over Syria is of opinion, and justly so, that schemes of colonization are a Government concern, and in future Miss Jeppe will not pursue this part of her work. The documents are A. 32 and A. 111, the last being the report to the Assembly, from which it will be noted that provision is made during the next financial year of the, League for the sum of 75,000 francs, 45,000 to be allotted for the work in Aleppo, and 30,000 for that in Constantinople. There was a suggestion that perhaps the League could find this year sufficient money to cover the work for a period of three years, but this suggestion was not accepted, and the wisdom of this decision was confirmed by the French representative, who stated in committee that he thought the need was a diminishing one. Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs. It will be convenient to take together the report of the Advisory Committee (Document A. 28) and Document A. 34 concerning the proposed Commission of Inquiry in certain opium-producing countries, for although they were considered separately by the Fifth Committee, they are, in fact, i nte rde pendent. The First and Second Opium Conferences occupied a place of importance in the discussions of the Fifth Committee, and particularly the Convention drawn up by the Second Conference. In the report of the Advisory Committee two countries are singled out for special mention, China and Persia. The Chinese delegate protested against the references to his country, and stated that figures relating to the production of opium in China were largely exaggerated. As a matter of fact, there are no reliable figures, for there is no official publication giving any, and those on which the Advisory Committee has relied are based on estimates supplied by a non-official organization. The delegate from Persia, whilst not denying that there might be illicit trading in opium in the Persian Gulf, took his stand on the fact that his country has not yet ratified the Opium Convention, or adopted the import-certificate system, and stated that it was quite impossible for Persia to put an end at once to the production of opium, for such a proceeding would mean the starvation of a very large number of peasants whose lives depended on the cultivation of the poppy. He failed to realize, and this was pointed out to him, that there was no question of Persia's right to produce opium ; the charge against Persia was that no precautions were taken to prevent illicit trading. The Persian delegate, in the course of his speech, had alluded to the proposed Commission of Inquiry in certain opium-producing countries, and stated that his Government would welcome such an inquiry. This proposal was made during the course of the Second Opium Conference, and was in due course submitted to the Council, which, according to Document A. 34, took no definite decision, preferring to send the proposal to the Sixth Assembly for consideration, especially as expenditure of money was involved. Up to date only one country has asked that the Commission, if set up, should be sent to it, and that country is Persia. The question before the Fifth Committee was, Would such a Commission, if sent to Persia, have good results ? If so, the money involved would be well spent. If, on the other hand, good was unlikely to result, then it would be better not to set up a Commission. An appeal was made to the Persian delegate to say whether his country was prepared to adopt the regulations put in force by other countries for controlling the illicit traffic in opium, and if ho could not answer that question in the affirmative, would he recommend his Government to frame and put into force the necessary regulations ? The Persian delegate was unable to give an affirmative reply to the first question, but he promised to make the recommendation asked for ; and, in these circumstances, the Fifth Committee, after further deliberation, resolved to recommend that a Commission of Inquiry be set up. The sum recommended to be set aside for the purpose of the inquiry was 200,000 gold francs. The Commission of Control, which considers all financial matters, whilst recommending that the Fourth Committee should give effect to the request on account of the efforts being made by the League to check the abusive trade in opium, thought that the amount should, be reduced to 150,000 francs, and that the Council should endeavour to obtain the balance from sources outside the League, suggesting that the Persian Government should make a grant-in-aid, seeing that one of the tasks of the Commission of Inquiry would be consideration of the substitution of a proportion of the poppy-cultivation by other crops, a matter domestic to Persia. The Fourth Committee was almost equally divided on the question, the voting resulting in a majority of one in favour of the Commission of Inquiry, involving an expenditure of 150,000 francs.