1929 League Opium Meeting 10

 

Committee members are examining the annual drug reports sent in to the League of Nations, almost all of them from 1927 

Geneva, Switzerland, 12JAN1929: Swiss delegate Dr Carrière set the tone by admitting the Swiss figures for morphine were missing, and the Chairman responded by giving the wrong date for the Geneva Drug Convention having come into force as ratified. France's man admitted that there were errors in their figures for heroin imports and blamed it on stocks left over from 1926. Amounts were also misreported in figures for drugs sent from Switzerland to Japanese Kwantung holdings within China inherited from the Germans as part of WW1 settlements of accounts, but the Japanese representative assured his colleague the figures were correct when viewed from the proper perspective. On the heels of the previous meeting, at which discrepancies large enough to be humorous had come to light, these exchanges led to item 302, namely, speculation as to how the League Secretariat ought to react to clearly incorrect figures in reports handed in. The formula worked out in 1925 did not seem to be working. 

Italy's pedantic and excitable Senator took this as his cue to distribute criticism and backed a colleague's suggestion that explanatory footnotes be added by way of interpretation, explaining that he did not wish to bring any reproach upon the Secretariat, then added that qualified technical statisticians ought to be resorted to lest incorrect figures reflect poorly on the quality of the League's work--this while airily endorsing the wisdom of the American-invented Central Board's approach to these measurements as an example worth emulating.  Kibitzing for the Opium Section, Prof. Hall pointed out that the discrepancies documents were not publicly circulated, so adverse publicity of some thirty cases was not a pressing concern, and protocol was being followed. Yet Senator Cavazzoni now worried that it would take until 1929--six years from when the Committee had begun its work--for further light on the statistical tables!  When India's representative pointed out that Italy's statistical report had arrived several months late, the Senator became sulkily petulant at the very idea that his country might share some of the blame for discrepancies he'd been harping on. 

1929 was in fact confirming what everyone conversant with trade in pharmaceuticals had pointed out in 1924! Netherlands representative Van Wettum had been called upon to produce an analysis of the problems confronting coca and cocaine--which the Netherlands had switched to as less exploitative and less harmful than opium the previous century. His plan called for a 10% reduction of production (to humor rabid Americans) but with a European-style cartel and no competition from synthetic cocaine--a regular Adam Smith form of mercantilism. Europeans who drafted alternative plans did not expect coercion to elicit honest statistics.  Other Europeans drew up plans and draft treaties, all of which fell shy of American demands. 

On 25MAY1923 Bishop Brent addressed the League of Nations Opium Advisory Committee and said: "In this or any other matter pertaining to human welfare, if the question of revenue or financial profit is allowed to play any part whatever except that of the lowly servant of science, morals and religion, it becomes a debauching influence, corrupting men's minds and perverting their morals. … Money is indeed a root of all evil. As with individuals, so with Governments." This was his way of warming up the room in preparation for the American pitch to cure Europeans and Asians the way American waterboarding cured the Filipinos... Europeans understood that fanatics were in charge of  America.  On 05FEB1923 the Opium Advisory Committee 4th Session report containing talk of limitation of production was approved by the League Council. The 4th Session had begun 04JAN1923 and German hyperinflation accelerated the entire time before Brent's ravings had removed all doubt. Germans recalled that since passage of the antidrug Jones-Miller Act of 26MAY1922, Versailles Article 23 was being weaponized the way the Hague Convention was weaponized after the antidrug Harrison Act of 1914--then came World War One. 

Interesting reading and media: Opium to Java by James Rush I read long ago. Google now has it posted as a Google book.(link) I was surprised to learn that colonial Dutch became disillusioned with revenue opium as a "reproach to a Christian nation" and switched to coca shrubs transplanted from South America as a replacement crop. National Geographic covered Netherland Indies coca production and Balkan opium farming all the while Sino-American prohibition campaigns caused economic and political crises escalating into World War 1. This included articles by Herbert Hoover. Yet search engine bots are programmed to feign incomprehension and sideline searches on the subject. I finally queried "Was any coca ever grown on Java?" The spell was broken and revealed this Youtube video: 

Get the big picture in Prohibition and The Crash on Amazon Kindle in two languages. After this you’ll be able to explain to economists exactly how laws against production and trade wrecked the U.S. economy.

Prohibition and The Crash, on Amazon Kindle (link)

ASYLUM APPLICATION FORM i589 INSTRUCTIONS IN PORTUGUESE: INSTRUÇÕES PARA O FORMULÁRIO DE ASILO i589. What we did was make the Political Asylum instructions accessible to and understandable by people accustomed to thinking in Portuguese. This costs one dollar ($1) and you can read it on a cellphone with the Kindle app.(link)

Comment at Libertariantranslator or LIBtranslator, my political economy blog at https://libertrans.blogspot.com/

Brazilian Sci-fi from 1926 featuring the adventures of a Rio de Janeiro man-about-town and the beautiful daughter of an elderly scientist–touting alcohol prohibition, eugenics and racial collectivism. Go to Amazon.com and look inside America’s Black President 2228 by Monteiro Lobato, cover art by Rene Bueno, translated by J Henry Phillips (link)

I also produce books and articles in Portuguese, plus my own blogs using U.S., Australian, Canadian, Chinese, English, European and South American historical sources at http://www.expatriotas.blogspot.com or www.amigra.us and in English at http://Libertariantranslator.wordpress.com (link)

This financial history blog, http://www.Libertrans.us, in Portuguese is Expatriotas for Brazilians, readable at www.criseeconomica.com (link)

Do you need to contact a certified Translator or Interpreter?

Está procurando tradutor ou intérprete credenciado?