APPENDIX B.

CORRESPONDENCE

(cablegram)

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, EXECUTIVE BUREAU

MANILLA

MANILA, P.I. AUGUST 7, 1903

SECWAR,
Washington:
The Opium Committee, consisting of Edward C. Carter, Chairman; Bishop Brent, and.Doctor Albert, expect to leave about the middle of August for Japan. They will go to Formosa, Shanghai, Hongkong, Singapore, Java, and Burmah. Request that State Department advise the Japanese Minister and consuls at the various places of their coming and that they should be assisted in their investigations.

Copy for MAJOR E. C. CARTER,    TAFT.
Commissioner of Public Health, Manila.
August 8, 1903.

OFFICE OF THE CIVIL GOVERNOR OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. MANILA.
MANILA, P. I., August 8, 1903.

MAJOR EDWARD C. CARTER, Surgeon U. S. Army,
Chairman of the Opium Committee, Manila, P. I.
MY DEAR MAJOR CARTER:
As you know, you have been appointed Chairman of the Opium Committee under Act No. 800, and Dr. Jose Albert and the Right Reverend Bishop Brent have been appointed your colleagues.
Your Committee will visit Japan, Formosa, Shanghai, Hongkong, Saigon, Singapore, Java, and Upper and Lower Burmah, and inform yourselves concerning the laws governing the importation, sale, and use of opium in force in those countries and cities, the operation and effect 'of the laws in restraining or encouraging the use of the drug, the estimated number of users of the drug, the total population, the amount of opium consumed, the price at which it is sold, the value of the monopoly concession if there be such a concession, and its increase or decrease year by year, and the causes therefor ; the amount of opium smuggled into the city or country, the method of its use, whether by smoking, eating, drinking, or hypodermic injection, the effect of the use of the drug on the different races, and, in general, all facts shown by the experience of the governments of the countries and cities named above, a knowledge of which is likely to aid the Commission in determining the best kind of law to be passed in these islands for reducing and restraining the use of opium by its inhabitants. The widest latitude is given you in making such investigation as may seem best to you. The results of your investigations you will embody in a report, together with the evidence which you may have been able to take formally by the aid of your stenographer.
I have requested the Secretary of War to ask the Secretary of State to direct the diplomaic and consular officers of the United States in the cities which you shall visit to assist in every way, and through them you will be able to invoke the assistance of the governments or the officials of the governments of the countries where you will conduct your investigations.
I beg to enclose a letter which I have -received from Dr. Stuntz, containing letters of introduction to certain gentlemen in Japan and other countries who he thinks may be able to give you valuable information.

CORRESPONDENCE.
[Cablegram.]
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
EXECUTIVE BUREAU.
MANILA.
MANILA, P. I., August 7,1903.

You have authority to employ from time to time such interpreters as may be necessary. You will be able, possibly, to facilitate your work of obtaining information by hospitality toward officials and residents of the countries you visit. You are therefore authorized to make a reasonable expenditure for such entertainment. It is hoped that you may complete your visits to the countries and cities named before the end of four months from the time of your departure from the islands. If this is impossible, and you need more time, you will be good enough to advise me. If your investigation shall lead you to suppose that you may obtain information of value in other countries than those mentioned, please let me know, and I will authorize your going to those countries.
I have designated Carl J. Arne11, a stenographer in the Bureau of Government Laboratories, to accompany you as your disbursing officer, stenographer and interpreter. I am informed he speaks Spanish, Japanese, French, and Dutch.
I need not say to you that the Commission has not the slightest desire to influence or control the conclusions of your Committee. We have, I think, sufficiently indicated this by the appointment of your Committee, for with such men any attempt on our part to secure a prejudiced report from you would be met with proper rebuke. All that the Commission desires to know is the truth, and nothing said in the prior discussion by the members of the Commission should affect your judgment, formed judicially after an investigation into the facts.
With the hope that you may have a pleasant, as I am sure you will have a useful, journey, believe me, my dear Major,

Sincerely yours,

Wm. H. TAFT

Civil Governor

OFFICE OF THE CIVIL GOVERNOR OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
MANILA.
MANILA, P. I., August 15, 1903.

To CONSULAR OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE ORIENT: GENTLEMEN:
This letter will be presented to you by Major E. C. Carter, Surgeon, United States Army, and at present Commissioner of Health for the Philippine Islands, who, together with the Right Reverend Charles H. Brent, Episcopal Bishop of. the Philippine Islands, and Doctor Jose Albert, a Filipino and a physician of Manila, visit your city as a Committee appointed by the Civil Governor of the Islands to investigate the laws of the various countries in the Orient regulating the use, sale and importation of opium. I shall take it as a great favor if you will do all that lies in your power to assist this Committee in its investigations.

Very respectfully yours,
Wm. H. TAFT,
Civil Governor.

MY DEAR MAJOR:

Your action in allowing Doctor Albert, a member of the Opium Committee, to return to Manila owing to illness in his family, is approved. The proposal to allow him to remain in the Philippines to make investigations I will consider when he presents the matter, though it seems to me better that the entire Committee should assist in that investigation. Very sincerely yours,

WM. H. TAFT,
Civil Governor.

MAJOR E. C. CARTER, U. S. A.,
Chairman of the Opium Committee and Commissioner of Public Health, Taipeh, Formosa.