2d Session.

No. 2003.

PROHIBITING THE IMPORTATION AND USE OF OPIUM FOR OTHER THAN MEDICINAL PURPOSES.

FEBRUARY 1, 1909.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. PAYNE, from the Committee on Ways and Means, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 27427.]

The Committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 27427) to prohibit the importation and use of opium for other than medicinal purposes, having had the same under consideration, report it back to the House without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

This bill prohibits the importation of opium into the United States. from and after the 1st day of April next, with a proviso that opium for medicinal purposes may be imported, upon payment of the duty prescribed by law and under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Section 2 is drawn substantially after section 3082 of the Revised Statutes, and provides safeguards for rendering effective the provisions of section 1, and for the punishment of offenders, etc.

Section 3082, above referred to, covers all articles imported contrary to law, and would possibly cover prohibited opium, without its reenactment as section 2 of this act, but this can certainly be no valid objection to including its provision here, and applying it specifically to opium as is done in section 2. Section 3082 was enacted in 1799 originally, amended in 1866 and 1876, and has stood the test of judicial examination in several cases.

It appears that the Department of State has been receiving from time to time various reports showing the alarming increase in the opium-smoking habit in various parts of the world, including the United States. More than two years ago the department initiated a movement which has resulted in an agreement for the meeting of a convention at Hongkong on this 1st day of February, at which there will be representatives of nearly all of the governments of the world, to consider plans for the suppression of this world-wide evil. As our

Government has taken the initiative, it is deemed very important by the Executive that Congress should enact this bill into law without delay.

It is the opinion of the present Secretary of State, as it was of his predecessor, that such law would prove an important factor in the suppression of the evil in our country. A careful examination of the question, with the information obtained from the State Department, has convinced your committee that the bill ought to pass. If the hopes of the department can be realized, the large loss in the revenues, amounting to nearly a million of dollars annually, should not weigh against it.

This bill is precisely the bill drawn by the Secretary of State in December last, with the exception that the Secretary of the Treasury is substituted for the Secretary of Agriculture as the proper executive officer to enforce the provisions of the bill, and an amendment is added securing the payment of the duties upon the opium imported for medicinal purposes. It is at least extremely doubtful if any revenue could be collected on the importation of the opium permitted in the bill without this change.

DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR APPROPRIATION BILL.

FEBRUARY 2, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. COUSINS, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 27523.]

The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 27523), making appropriations for the diplomatic and consular service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, submit the following report:

The bill (H. R. 27523) making appropriations for the diplomatic and consular service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, submitted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, carries a total of $3,592,738.60, which is an increase over the appropriation acts of the last session of Congress for our foreign intercourse of $18,774.69, while the increases or new legislation estimated by the Department of State amounted to $382,742.

The new items of expense in the bill contemplate the nonpartisan selection of ten student interpreters of the Turkish language at an annual salary of $1,000 each; the entertainment of the International Prison Congress and the International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, to be held in Washington in 1910, at a cost of $10,000 each; an increase of the annual appropriation for the repair of legation and consular premises owned by the Government of the United States, now nine in number, from $7,000 to $10,000; an increase in the appropriation for marking the Alaska boundary, $75,000 to $100,000; for marking the Canadian boundary, from $20,000 to $25,000; for the payment of a commission, provided for by the treaty ratified on February 8, 1908, for the purpose of preparing draft codes of private and public international law, $10,000; for the purchase of a house now on the United States embassy grounds at Tokyo at the actual cost of construction, $3,267; to pay the quota of the United States toward the support of the International Office of Public Health, created by treaty, $3,000, and the increase of the force of consular assistants from twenty to thirty, at a minimum salary of $1,000 and a maximum of $1,800 after a service of seven years.

The items of decrease, or omission, from the last appropriation act are as follows:

Repair of embassy building at Constantinople.

St. Johns River litigation

$25, 111. 19 15,000.00

600.00 1,800.00 25,000.00

2,830. 79 1,300.00

71, 641.98

The committee recommend an amendment to section 1685 of the Revised Statutes, to effect a change in the method of paying secretaries of embassy or legation while acting as chargés d'affaires in the absence of the ambassador or minister. As the law now stands (sections 1676 and 1685, Revised Statutes), one acting as chargé d'affaires is entitled to an amount equal to 50 per cent of the salary of the officer whose place he temporarily fills, and ceases to draw his salary while so acting. The proposed amendment would allow him to continue drawing his salary, the amount of which would be deducted from the 50 per cent, leaving his compensation exactly the same as at present.

The only other proposed change in the bill for 1910 is the item to relieve the consul-general to Shanghai from the necessity of sitting as a judge in petty cases coming before the Shanghai consular court. At present the consul-general is compelled to hear all such cases as are not of sufficient importance to be referred to the United States court for China, and the amendment proposed by your committee seeks to transfer the judicial authority in such minor cases from the consul-general, who is already overburdened with other and more important consular work, to the vice-consul-general.